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H ED ITION G LO B A L In Collaboration with Celebrity Fight Night 2018 CO-FOUNDER & EDITOR IN CHIEF

Dina Aletras CO-FOUNDER & CEO

Contents 16 EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Veronica & Andrea Bocelli

Roberto Pucciano

24 HM QUEEN RANIA AL ABDULLAH OF JORDAN

DEPUTY EDITOR

Joanne Walker C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R

The Jewel in Jordan’s Crown

Kevin Dodd P R & C O M M U N I C AT I O N S D I R E C T O R

Massimo Basile

30 A N D R E A I L LY The Pioneer of Café Culture

STYLE EDITOR

Natalie Read

38 SHAMAN OF OUR TIMES

MOTOR EDITOR

Gareth Herincx

Shaman Durek Shares The Beauty Of Life

CLIENT MANAGEMENT

Karina Valeron SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL ADVERTISERS AND CONTRIBUTORS

The Teams at MG Sport • Celebrity Fight Night • MN Italia • Starbiz.it • Il Palato Italiano • Dolce & Gabbana • AV Buyer • Castadiva Resort & Spa

50 CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

62 C A R LY P A O L I The Sounds of Success

82 COCO CHANEL Style Icon

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“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you”

Welcome Welome to H Edition Global’s Limited Edition issue for Celebrity Fight Night 2018. When we were selected to prepare this issue I was incredibly proud – and so happy to be part of an everlasting legacy which helps such amazing causes.

It’s such a prestigious thing for us as a company and such an honour on a personal level. The first thing I took time on was to focus and understand exactly what this magnificent series of events gives back to the world that it raises money for. All such star studded occasions have a purpose and in the case of CFN18 it is to embrace obstacles and find solutions to helping others – our children, our schools, families in need – to give them hope for the future, and so much more. What makes it even more outstanding is that all proceeds will benefit the following foundations: The Andrea Bocelli Foundation, The Barrow Neurological Institute and the Mohammed Ali Parkinson Center. There are literally thousands of families and people connected to each one – adding a whole new meaning and depth to the support that they offer through good and bad times.

Throughout this issue I have taken the time to assemble articles that I hope you will enjoy. We have noted all the things that make CFN18 come together and have taken highlights from past years, collating them to make a Collector’s Edition for you to keep. We have dedicated an article to Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, winner of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation humanitarian award in 2016. Her Majesty is a true advocate for such causes.

From exclusive interviews, an insight into Luxury Lifestyle, Art & Culture, Fine Dining and more, this issue is one to treasure.

With heartfelt wishes, DINA ALETRAS, CO-FOUNDER AND EDITOR IN CHIEF Twitter: @hfusionmedia Instagram: @heditionmagazine

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

An Encounter of Souls When you have the chance to interview one of the most famous couples in the world it is a moment of sheer delight.

Dina Aletras, did just that. Welcome to the world of Veronica & Andrea Bocelli.

How do you think the world of Classical Music is changing – what challenges do you think the generations following you will face?

AB – Quality classical music will never be “outdated” therefore there will inevitably be connoisseurs even in future generations. Despite any crisis, as proven by history, good music will never cease. In the future, those who wish to have a greater insight of this art, maybe to make it their profession too, will find themselves at a crossroads, having to make a choice between the immediate yet short-lived benefits of a career in pop music which rarely last (or any other contemporary genres) or the taking a gamble and start a knowledge-based journey which is much deeper and enriching for the soul.

There will always be some individuals who will want to go deeper, through a learning process which is undoubtedly a thorny one, made of hardships and sacrifices but which will take them towards what is often defined the “paradise of music”.

Music is obviously vitally important to both of you – do you have a favorite piece of music or composer that you turn to when you need to relax, or focus?

VB – At Bocelli’s it is easier to listen to “live” music and it may come from the piano or Andrea’s and Matteo’s voices or even from the music instruments played by our musician friends who come to visit us. Even our little Virginia studies music and practices the piano. Generally speaking, my musical preferences match Andrea’s. Obviously different moods influence somehow musical choices but overall, we prefer listening to opera pieces (in particular the Italian and French repertoire), and

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we tend to favour those artists who Andrea has admired since his childhood, such as… Beniamino Gigli, Franco Corelli, as well as Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.

When we are in the car we listen to a bit of everything, even the latest pop songs and our “big” guys Amos and Matteo are the most knowledgeable and many times they give us some heads-ups.

Lately my daughter Virginia has been listening a lot to Ed Sheeran, who is also Matteo’s friend. But she also likes Pink and Céline Dion, who she has recently discovered: during the last few weeks she is obsessed with “My heart will go on” from the Titanic movie.

You’ve both worked with a lot of very famous people, both professionally and as part of your work for the Andrea Bocelli Foundation – has there ever been a moment when you’ve ever been star-struck?

VB – As my husband often reminds us, success meant as fame is not a value. Even Hitler is still sadly famous today. Fame itself does not lead to anything, it is not a trait. Andrea is a wonderfully normal person who does – yes this is true – a very special profession, a career that has allowed him (and those close to him) to meet many people around the world, who apart from their fame, are often very interesting individuals. Success, if pursued to gain a real human dimension, very often represents an obstacle, because in these conditions it is easier to lose the grip on reality. There is a risk of getting lost if you don’t keep your feet on the ground (again these are Andrea’s words).

What is a day like in the Bocelli household?

AB – Between business meetings and convivial gatherings our residence is like a railway station.

Since I travel the world for work my biggest desire is to stay at home in tranquility with my children and people I love. As a matter of fact, my wife and I spend the best vacations at home! Here my day is marked by my studies and the sweet presence of my children. I sing, play the piano and when possible, I meet my friends who often join us for dinner. As I have trouble falling asleep my day ends very late at night and whenever possible starts late in the morning... And the perfect day starts with a little “vice” that Veronica indulges me with: she is so sweet to bring me my coffee in bed...

You’re a married couple and you also work quite closely together. How do you keep a balance between work life and home life?

AB – Plato, one of the most enlightened philosophical minds of all time, in his “Symposium” explained how the soul is divided in two halves, one male and one female, so that it can incarnate in the world: every split soul before birth, during its experience on earth, seeks its missing half while aiming at a golden completeness. Well for me and Veronica we can definitely say that ours was a “encounter of souls”. We have been living together for over 16 years, 24 hrs. a day... Together we have faced and overcome all sorts of situations with tenacity. When two people, after so long, have still the desire to be together unconditionally, it really means that their souls are made for each other, and this so true for us.

VB – “Bocelli teaches us that the sky is blue inside each one of us”, wrote Enzo Biagi one of the greatest journalists of the 20th century. And indeed it is so true. If you live positively you can appreciate the daily trials of life and let the fits of rage roll right off your back. Andrea is excellent at this, as he never gets angry. I have a more passionate nature and it takes me much longer to get over something.

“For me and Veronica we can definitely say that ours was an encounter of souls … together we have faced and overcome all sorts of situations with tenacity” How do you relax – is it difficult to find time to just be a couple?

AB – At Bocelli’s it is difficult to remain alone for example for lunch or dinner we are on average twelve and fifteen, because normally we have people from the management office, people looking after the house, relatives, friends who come to see us.

I normally have dinner alone with my wife only on Christmas Eve. However, it is not so difficult to regain that complicity, that understanding, the energies required to start again… In most of the cases it suffices by taking a stroll by the sea…

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Images © Luca Rossetti

Do you feel that your daughter will follow you into the world of Classical Music?

VB – Our little Virginia has been exposed to music since she was born, but considering her young age, for the time being she is living it mainly as a game. She studies piano, ballet, she is intrigued by and interested in many forms of art and who knows if her curiosity today may turn into a passion in the future. So many variables come into play in determining whether she will choose her passions as her career.

AB – What we really hope is that Virginia can pinpoint and realise her personal ambitions.

Parents should never choose their children’s future, because each individual has their own passions and talents. In our capacity as adults we have to prepare and facilitate that pathway through where the child will then be able to

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identify their own way. We have the duty to teach them to be altruistic, honest and respectful not just at home, but we have to lead by example in any situation. Thanks to these ingredients the “little ones” will surely build a future, which will reflect their talents and aspirations. This is all I hope for our little princess.

If you could pick six guests to dine with, past or present, who would you choose?

AB – Jesus Christ (needless to explain you why), my father to thank him and to experience again the joy to have him next to me, Giacomo Puccini, because his genius has enlightened my days. And many more extraordinary figures, from Blaise Pascal to Lev Tolstoj, from Guglielmo Marconi to Albert Einstein, from Gaetano Donizetti to Giuseppe Verdi… I am simply spoilt for choices.

www.futuroluce.it Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Reggio Calabria

LIGHT MAKES HISTORY.

Andrea Bocelli & Antonio Banderas

Veronica, Andrea & Matteo Bocelli

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COVER STORY

Andrea Bocelli Andrea Bocelli is one of the world’s most famous and talented tenors.

He’s known not only for his classical opera, but also for his music crossover-collaborations with artists from the world of popular music.

He’s also raised thousands for charity, both personally and through his foundation, and, it’s been said, that, in his birthplace of Italy he’s second only to the Pope in terms of stature and popularity.

B

ocelli was born in September 1958 at his farm (where his parents sold farm machinery and made wine) in the heart of beautiful Tuscany. He started to learn the piano aged just six; this passion for music lead him to learn to play the flute, trumpet, trombone, saxophone and drums and, thanks to his Nanny, who gave him a recording of Franco Corelli, ultimately into singing. By the time he was seven he could recognise, and emulate, the great singers. When he was 12 he lost his eyesight after an accident when playing football. As he grew older his talent for singing became increasingly evident, however, following his parents’ wishes he studied law at the University of Pisa, where he earned money by performing in piano bars. He then spent a year working as a court appointed lawyer, before his career as a singer began to take off.

His big break came in 1992, when a demo tape he’d recorded of Miserere, for Zucchero Fornaciari, was sent to Luciano Pavarotti. The song had been written for Pavarotti, but when he heard Bocelli’s voice, he was so impressed that he urged Fornaciari to use Bocelli instead of him. In the event, Pavarotti and Bocelli recorded the song together and it went on to become a Europe-wide hit. He went to become the world’s best-selling solo classical artist, releasing numerous studio and live albums

throughout his career including collaborating with Jennifer Lopez and Nelly Furtado on the 2013 album Passione, working with Placido Domingo and Ana Maria Martinez in 2014s Manon Lescaut and most recently joining forces with Ed Sheeran in a collaboration called ‘Perfect Symphony – which became the number one trending video on You Tube on the day it was released.

“an entire evening dedicated to the highest expression of opera in all its glory” He lives in a three story, ten-bedroom Villa in Italy with his second wife, Music Manager, Veronica and their daughter Virginia. They met at a party, and it seems that they fell in love instantaneously, with Bocelli singing his first aria for her that night, and them moving together almost immediately after they’d met.

His first wife lives in a neighbouring villa, with their two sons. Whilst many might raise an eyebrow at this arrangement, it seems to work well for

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COVER STORY

everyone. Bocelli explained to the Independent: “it’s simply an intelligent way to live your family life because it’s more intelligent to make peace rather than war”.

Almost as prolific as his music is his charity work. Not only has he given his time for free and appeared at numerous concerts and events, which have raised funds for, among many things, the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, the victims of the Indian tsunami, those affected by the 2010 Haiti earthquake and UK charity Children in Need, Bocelli has also used his high profile to create the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. The Foundation, in collaboration with the Only The Brave Foundation, recently rebuilt an earthquake devastated school, in Sarnano, in just 150 days. The Foundation is also funding cutting edge research into creating autonomous robots which could transform the lives of blind people by creating an instrument which will allow them to walk everywhere with confidence.

The Andrea Bocelli Foundation is also beneficiary of Italy’s very own Celebrity Fight Night. An offshoot of the establish American

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Celebrity Fight Night (one of the elite charity in the United States, which over its 24 years has raised some $132million), it involves celebrities and professional athletes from all over the world raising funds by participating in auctions and live performances. This year’s Italian Celebrity Fight Night will run from the 5th September to 10th September in venues across Italy, including Florence, Portovenere and Verona, where, on September 8th a very special show – an entire evening dedicated to the highest expression of opera in all its glory, and including the most prestigious names in opera and classical music – will take place at the Arena. Stage settings and scenes will re-create tableaux from the most famous and important masterpieces in an unprecedented gathering of talents and celebrities from all fields of art and entertainment.

The week-long “benefit trip” is designed to attract philanthropic donors and features special guests such as actors Antonio Banderas, Sharon Stone Sofia Loren and Susan Sarandon and musicians including Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Sir Elton John, who attended last year among

COVER STORY

many others. The event included dinners and private concerts at Italian Palaces such as Palazzo Colonna and Palazzo Doria Pamphiji, a concert at the Roman Coliseum, a reception at in the presence of Italian President Sergio Mattarella and culminated in performances by Bocelli himself.

Every year’s proceeds will support the Andrea

Bocelli Foundation and the Mohammad Ali Parkinson Centre.

Now approaching his 60th birthday, it seems Bocelli will continue to make his mark on the world – not just with the beautiful music he creates but with the life-changing work done by his foundation.

Elton John & Andrea Bocelli

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CULTURE

HM Queen Rania Al Abdullah THE JEWEL IN JORDAN’S CROWN

I

f you were to imaginae a very modern fairytale, it might perhaps include a woman, whose family were forced to flee their home, who meets and marries a Prince, becomes a Queen and goes on to campaign to change the world for the better? Whilst this might sound far-fetched, in many ways this is exactly the story of Queen Rania of Jordan.

Rania Al Yassin was born in Kuwait in August 1970, to Palestinian parents, and grew up in a comfortable home here. She later moved to Amman, where her family, along with thousands of other Palestinians had been forced to flee during the 1991 Gulf War, she went on to receive a degree in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo and worked first for Citibank and then for tech giant Apple. It was whilst working here in 1993 that a co-worker invited her to a dinner where one of the guests was Prince Abdullah Al-Hussain of Jordan. Their meeting has frequently been described as ‘love at first sight’ and, true to fairy-tale form, the couple were married just six months later.

Despite marrying a Prince, Rania had no expectation of ever being a Queen – her husband’s uncle was the official heir to the Jordanian throne.

However, on his deathbed in 1999, Abdullah’s father rocked Jordanian politics by changing the succession and naming his oldest son as his heir, meaning that at just 28 and mother to two small children, Rania became the world’s youngest Queen. Speaking to The Times earlier this year Queen Rania described this time: “It was extremely difficult – not least as I wasn’t expecting it” adding, “And from day one it’s been one challenge after another, we had 9/11, the war in Iraq and the refugees that came in then, the intifadas in Gaza, the wars in Lebanon and Syria and more refugees, so it’s really been a challenge.”

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However, it seems it has not been a challenge that has overwhelmed her – quite the contrary. Queen Rania has gone on to have two more children and she has used her royal status to campaign for both Jordanian children and children across the globe, she was one of the first high profile people in the middle east to draw attention to the reality of child abuse, she is a staunch defender of the need to educate women and girls and a vocal advocate for peace in the middle east and for cross cultural understanding between Arabic and Muslim people and their western cousins.

One of the first things she turned her attention to on becoming Queen was education and in 2000 she was invited by UNICEF to join its Global Leadership Initiative and work alongside other global leaders, such as Nelson Mendela, to improve the welfare of children. The recognition that this work achieved meant that in 2007 she was named UNICEF’s first Eminent Advocate for Children and led to her 2009 appointment as the Honorary Global Chair of the UN’s Girls’ Education Initiative. Her focus on improving the lives of women and girls through education has become a major part of her work. Speaking to Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America in 2009 she explained; “You know, often times, we think of girls as soft and vulnerable. And we don’t really think of them as possibly being the solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems, but they really are. You know?

You educate a girl. She gains self-confidence and self-respect. She gets married later in life. She has fewer kids. She earns a higher income and spends that income on her family’s education and health.”

Whilst her work in education has been vital, most recently it has been her compassion towards and campaign for understanding of the Syrian refugees that has been in the International spotlight. Whilst in parts of the western world

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CULTURE

the plight of the Syrian refugees and how to help them has been problematic, Jordan, a small and resource poor country, has taken in some 1.3 million refugees (compared to the 1 million taken in by the whole of Europe). In fact, 2.7 million of Jordan’s 9.5 million population are refugees, and whilst this as had a huge financial impact upon the country Queen Rania is proud of her country’s actions here, saying “It may not have been the logical or sensible decision to take in refugees because our economy can’t take it. But at the core of this crisis are human beings who lost everything through no fault of their own.”

It is perhaps this compassion and drive to create understanding that is at the heart of the work she does to promote understanding of Arabic and Muslim cultures in a suspicious western world.

A true modern Royal, she frequently uses social media to achieve this. She is unique among global royalty in that she has a high social media profile and she consciously uses this profile to help challenge Arabic and Muslim stereotypes and to try to counter the problem of Islamophobia. She has a website, a Facebook page, a twitter account

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and an Instagram account and she uses these to encourage cross-cultural dialogue and to challenge stereotypes – even using You Tube to reach out to young people across the globe to dismantle these stereotypes – receiving the first ever You Tube Visionary Award in 2008.

In many ways Queen Rania herself physically embodies a challenge to the stereotypes many people hold regarding Muslim woman. It’s frequently pointed out that she’s a Muslim woman who wears western clothes (The Times describes her as a “Chanel clad defender of the Muslim faith”), and it is perhaps understandable that in almost every interview she has asked about her decision not to wear the Hijab. However, she is quick to point out that, in her country, whilst many women wear the Hijab, many women do not – she adds; “it just baffles me that sometimes there’s a huge debate about an issue that really should be a non-issue.” She accepts that more needs to be done to promote equality, but notes that in Jordan woman are police officers, army officers, CEOs and judges, saying “They are out there, we are heading in the right direction, but we need to push.”

CULTURE

“Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah received the Humanitarian Award from the Andrea Bocelli Foundation in 2016” Since coming to the throne, Queen Rania has made a place in the world for herself as campaigner for woman, children, and refugees whilst challenging stereotypes about the Arabic and Muslims worlds. The way she does this and her use of social media reflects her engagement with the ever-changing world. If her meeting her Prince was a modern fairy tale, then the means through which she does her work as Queen reflects this modernity.

However, at just 47, in many ways, Queen Rania has only just begun her world-changing work – who knows where her story will lead?

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Branding → Design → Marketing →

INTERVIEW

Andrea Illy THE PIONEER OF CAFÉ CULTURE Andrea Illy is Chairman and CEO of illycaffè, the premium leader and standard-bearer of espresso coffee. Founded in 1933 in Trieste, illycaffè has taken its place as a symbol of Italian excellence. Under Andrea’s stewardship, illycaffè has become a brand recognised around the globe, not just for its coffee but for its ethical values and for the close relationships it has forged with growers, merchants and the contemporary art world.

S

ome successful brands have become ubiquitous almost surreptitiously: through years of quiet effectiveness and commitment to quality. One of these is Illy, whose familiar red-and-white curvy logo adorns a wide range of espresso machines in our favourite cafes and, increasingly, consumer products such as pods and the home cappuccino gadgets whose popularity has exploded in the last decade.

The story behind this Italian icon is fascinating. illycaffè’s founder Francesco Illy is one of the most under-rated innovators of the 20th Century.

A veteran Austro-Hungarian officer of the First World War, he settled in Italy and invented the high-pressure espresso machine in the 1930s, which has done so much to shape café culture in the decades since.

His grandson Andrea Illy is current chairman of the privately-owned global firm illycaffè, and he maintains the family tradition of blending continuity and high quality with relentless innovation. ‘Illy created the espresso culture,’ he points out. ‘And we now have a global presence – we’re in 144 countries.’

Like many family-run firms, illycaffè defies much conventional business wisdom. It specialises in one blend of product; it doesn’t minimize costs; it serves the customer, suppliers, workers and environment first and foremost, rather than obsessing over short-term shareholder returns.

H Edition was granted an exclusive interview with Andrea Illy. In the interview, he explains how the

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timeless principles of the firm enable it to honour tradition while continuing to innovate.

He exudes the calm confidence of a business leader who knows his firm’s qualities have stood the test of time, and that its recent innovations are paying off. ‘It’s more than a mission; it’s a passion, an obsession,’ he says. ‘A mission for our customers, and passion for our culture, which is based on two fundamental values: passion for excellence and ethics. We understand value as longterm. Building through sustainability; transparency, and people development.

‘It’s a stakeholder company: customers, suppliers, employees and communities. At the bottom of the pyramid, supporting the business, are the shareholders. That is the opposite to the conventional business model. It’s the triple bottom line’.

He points out that the innovations in the coffee industry in the past 10-15 years has actually helped the grower. Fierce competition to provide a rich, fresh and complex flavour in the cup – whether it’s at home or in a café – have led to an explosion of coffee shops, and innovations such as the individually served coffee pod, in which each cup is made fresh from a sealed container. This has transformed coffee from being a commodity to a product with considerable added value, and illycaffè has been able to pass on some of this to the producer. This is a particularly valuable service to provide in coffee, where the raw material price is so volatile, says Illy:

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INTERVIEW

looming environmental pressures. Climate change is already beginning to have an impact. In some tropical areas, high temperatures or excessive rain has posed problems for growers. This has particularly been a problem in Central and South America, he says. illycaffè’s focus is quite radically different from many conventional firms that are more focused on costs. In an Economist lecture in 2012, for example, Andrea pointed out that the firm does not deploy the highly fashionable ‘just-in-time’ supply chain practices, because that might compromise quality. Instead, the firm pays for warehousing, which he acknowledges adds to working capital, but which ensure the best product is in stock, guaranteeing the highest standards of taste and, as a result, the strength of the brand.

As a privately owned company that ‘doesn’t do politics’, illycaffè doesn’t attract the same controversy as Starbucks or Costa Coffee – firms that it is increasingly in direct competition with, through its range of business-to-consumer enterprises, which include coffee pods and cafes.

At the heart of his approach to business is a deep understanding of, and passion for, the product: the infinitely subtle varieties of flavour that coffee. ‘We are growing in our B2C business: cafes and online shops. Maintaining product strategy same as it is now: contribution to the positive revolution. It’s similar to wine: that has 5,000 years of history, whereas coffee only has 1,000 years. No two bottles of wine are the same.’

‘For example, at the beginning of 2002 the price was an all-time low of 40 cents per pound. Ten years later it was $3.23 per pound. It is difficult. It is worse than oil. The impact on producing countries is much worse – they are mostly developing countries.

Some 25 million families rely on coffee for their livelihood. Coffee underwent a positive revolution from commodity to high added-value. This has led to more consumption and a premium price.’

He adds: ‘Illy purchases directly from the grower, which helps their livelihood. In general, the market is passing more financial resources and more value to the producing countries. Our goal is to end poverty in the rural coffee-producing communities. It is feasible.’

This is not simply a case of social responsibility, but enlightened self-interest. The objective is to nurture and sustain the skilled farmers whose contribution is so obviously essential.

In addition, companies that rely on agriculture in a world of rising human population and pressure on land and other resources cannot ignore the

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“At the heart of his approach to business is a deep understanding of, and passion for, the product: the infinitely subtle varieties of flavour…”

This passion and commitment ensures a continued stream of new ideas. The stylish Espressamente stores have been opened around the world; the iperespresso capsules involve twostages: infusion followed by an emulsification process that mixes aromatic oils with air to enrich the flavour and produce a creamy texture.

The next development, Illy says, is personal tailoring of the blend of nine Arabica beans that Illy uses, with a computer programme that matches an individual’s taste to their ideal combination.

INTERVIEW

‘The software calculates your taste profile, which percentage, to give you your own brand, unique to you,’ he says.

This is a company, and an industry, that is becoming more innovative and sophisticated, reflected in the University of Coffee, set up by illy and now based in Trieste, bringing growers, the hospitality industry and consumers together.

Doubtless there will be new innovations. There will also be new and unexpected market and environmental challenges. But it looks as though the third generation of the entrepreneurial Illy family is ready.

By Philip Whiteley

COFFEE FACTS • Between 1990 and 2000 coffee consumption went up 1.7% per year but demographic increase was 1.4%, so there was only a tiny per capita increase. Between 2000 and 2010 it rose 2.7%, while demographics were still rising 1.4%.

• Until recently, consumption was 80% in OECD countries; now it’s 50%, with consumption increasing in India, China and Brazil.

• With revenues of close to $100 billion, coffee is the most traded tropical agricultural commodity. Some 500 billion cups of coffee are consumed worldwide every year.

Leonardo Ferragamo, Veronica and Andrea Bocelli, Andrea and Elisabetta Illy at the Fondazione Altagamma dinner

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INTERVIEW

Gerardo Segat “From a mental disorder to a strangely-wrapped gift” Gerardo Segat is an independent professional life coach, soul trainer and shadow coach to international private clients. He was the Founder and Chairman of a leading multi-family office with more than 350 employees and more than 10 offices worldwide. Gerardo has been a guest lecturer at the London School of Economics and a member of the YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) since 2013 and its Change Makers Club since 2017. He studied at Bocconi University in Milan, HEC in Paris and LSE in London. He speaks four languages, has two wonderful daughters and loves cooking and skiing.

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n today’s fast-moving, demanding and stressful culture, we live in a contradictory situation of little or no care and attention to the engine which is our mind. Nowadays, we are experiencing in many ways a long-overdue shift of attention from physical fitness to mental health such as the introduction of mental health education in schools, mindfulness and meditation courses and mobile apps are flourishing, it is the top trend in the luxury travel and wellness industry and coaching is booming. Mental wellness is considered to be longer lasting.

Despite this, mental disorders are still a taboo, which are little spoken about or accepted and are often hidden.

Hi Gerardo, can you tell us a little bit about your personal story?

As a child I suffered many traumas which impacted me tremendously. I lost my loved ones, my belongings.

In order of disappearance: my dad, my house, my school, my friends, my mum, my sister, my wealth, my wishes, my dreams, my childhood. I was left with my brother up until I married. The day I left him to begin a life with my wife, feelings of emptiness and fear set in. It was horrendous. To protect myself and my mind something deep inside triggered which resulted in daily compulsive messages to check each and every belonging to make sure they were safe and in order: car, house windows and doors, rucksack, purse, mobile, PC, clothes, body, etc. At the most severe times this compulsive checking consumed up to five hours a day.

It was exhausting.

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The day I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), I sat alone, in my room and cried.

With the fall of my tears came the rise of my soul.

I said: basta! (with a “b”, not a “p”) ENOUGH! with this monster and I started to build the life I wanted.

What challenges did you face because of your disorder?

The first hurdle was time pressure: my OCD practices reduced my day by 5 hours, hundreds of thousands of minutes and seconds! This affected every aspect of my life: partner, kids, work, friends, fitness, holidays, hobbies, sleep. You name it. Then came anxiety, stress, shame, low self-esteem, fear, poor concentration and scattered attention. In addition, I was insecure, felt lost and lonely, and was full of self-pity. More specific to work, I exhibited poor presence and availability, excessive delegation, superficial decision-making, people pleasing and blaming, wrong expectations and judgmental attitude.

Overall, the biggest challenge in living with OCD was the resulting isolation and self-involvement.

What were your key learnings?

Experiencing an anxiety mental disorder has become a journey of hard work and invaluable and considerable learning, a gift, a blessing. It is my legacy to my future generations and one way to inspire others.

In broad terms, turning my biggest weakness into my greatest strength has taught me empathy. I see more and better now and that is of tremendous value also to my current job as a coach. More specifically, the most

INTERVIEW

invaluable lessons were about the functioning of the mind and the approach to a personal monster.

We have a mind– we are not our mind. It is like a puppy, you need to train it to do what you want it to do.

The mind is fragile, often filling itself with bad thoughts and overprotectivness. By comfortably resisting mind compulsions, I learned how to educate and change the mind and how to divert the attention from our inner voice – the consciousness of thoughts and feelings – our seventh sense.

What about the approach to a personal monster?

With common personal monsters such as disorders, fears, obsessions, addictions and traumas, we tend to immediately jump into trying to resolve or delete.

Instead, we need to take time to look at them, acknowledge and accept our consequent feelings and then store them and decide appropriate action.

We have to learn to love our monsters. By being compassionate, accepting peacefully and understanding the reasons. They have helped us be who we are, where we are and they deserve our gratitude. We should get them out, share them as soon as possible and then, face them with determination and resilience. They will go away, as will the side effects. Acting gently and smoothly, with no hard pushing. Finally, finding a way to turn our weakness into our strength and make it, what I call, a strangely-wrapped gift.

So, what is inside your strangely-wrapped gift?

Inspiration and coaching. The YPO is the premier leadership organisation worldwide: 25.000 members in 130 countries. By being a selected member of its Change Makers Club, I am invited to talk to chapters worldwide or at international events and inspire entrepreneurs and top executives by sharing my story. It’s called influencing the influencers. I changed to professional coaching because I wanted more human element and more alignment with my personal core values, identity and mission and my contribution to the successfull negotiations for the sale of AC Milan football club in 2015 further convinced me. Mario De Andrade, one of the founders of Brazilian modernism, explains it in his poem ‘My Soul Has a Hat’ and here is a small extract for you and your readers:

having been an excellent player before. Lots of precious insights for me and my clients. Furthermore, OCD has made my coaching offering more complete through Soul Training Services. It has also affected my style: care and sensitivity can move mountains. And a strong focus on the negative/weaknesses (OCD) in the past, has pushed me towards a strong focus on the positive/strengths (coaching) in the present and future.

Finally, thanks to OCD, I have maximised the skill of an unusual attention to detail that makes the difference in shadow coaching. To summarise, my OCD experience has built my competitive advantage as a coach today.

What is Shadow Coaching?

Noticing details/symptoms, in relation to specific agreed objectives, during a temporary and silent accompaniment over the course of one or more client’s work days, meetings (ie board, negotiation, etc.) or performances, in the field, and after feedback, one-to-one coaching sessions. We all know that the difference between failure and success, good and excellent is often details. Shadow coaching is a tailored mix between consultancy and coaching that stimulates continuous improvement and it is how I capitalise on my past entrepreneurial experience.

“We have to learn to love our monsters. By being compassionate, accepting peacefully and understanding the reasons.”

What are your plans for the near future?

What is the impact of this remarkable personal experience on your coaching activity?

Professional coaching brings self-awareness, authenticity and success, inspires change, maximises potential and makes people feel good. The term “coaching” is professionally overused, often inappropriately, and this creates confusion and skepticism. I want proper professional coaching to have more visibility and public exposure so I am currently working on bringing coaching into public debates moderation and on a media format suitable for licensing at an international level. I also want to divulge it in the luxury hospitality industry, a perfect and ideal scenario for coaching, and within the celebrity community. They set an example for others and are amongst the ones who can benefit the most from coaching, considering their kind of life full of ups and downs, sensitivity and public exposure.

OCD has made me learn about the mind on the field: today, as a coach, it is like being a football manager

www.gerardosegat.com

“I want to live next to humans, who know to laugh at their mistakes, who are not inflated by their own triumphs. I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch the hearts of those whom hard strokes of life have learned to grow with sweet touches of the soul”.

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INTERVIEW

Shaman for our times

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e live in an age where the quest for the future is huge – we’ve watched Elon Musk launch his Tesla car into space, we are witness to the beginning of AI that will transform how we live our lives, we’re busier and busier and, thanks to technology are contactable 24 hours a day via our phones, our laptops and even our TV screens. In the midst of such incredible advances it may seem that the past is far behind us, and yet, it is perhaps exactly this progress that has exposed a gap between what we can achieve technologically and what we need spiritually. Increasingly, among the rich, famous and incredibly time-pressured, this gap has prompted a movement away from the complex world of our technological future and towards the personal truths that lie hidden in the wisdom of our past.

Into this gap, has stepped Californian Shaman Durek Verrett, known as Shaman Durek. Traditionally a Shaman provides a bridge between the physical world and the spiritual world and uses decades of personal study and practice to speak to the spirit world and provide life enhancing advice and perspective to the people they counsel. Shaman Durek works both with groups and on a one-to-one basis. His session rates are based on a sliding scale from $500-$1000 and his clients include top level CEOs as well as Hollywood royalty – Gwyneth Paltrow is famously a client and good friend of his.

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview the Shaman. When I do, at 5pm, after a very long day in the office, I must admit I’m tired and slightly apprehensive – I’ve never spoken to a Shaman before and I’m worried that I might ask the wrong question or offend him. I needn’t have worried, Shaman Durek is friendly, utterly charming and a pleasure to speak to.

What does it mean to be a Shaman in in the 21st century? Do you encounter cynicism?

In Iceland, I was working with a lot of sick patients and one of them had cancer and got better. I staked no claim to healing her; however, she went to the press and spoke about it. It sparked an outcry with the medical community and it became a controversy. But what then happened was really interesting – a conversation about

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allopathic medicine versus alternative therapies and utilising ancient wisdom to bring forth healing and changes in people’s lives.

I was reading that you said when people take on criticism, if they criticise themselves, if they criticise their body, it’s like they’re like drinking poison?

It’s beyond drinking poison. It’s worse than drinking poison because it attacks the cellular membrane inside your body which is basically responsible for how your health is generated.

How do you work with people?

When people come in with questions, those questions are not the real issue. I show them what the real issue is, and they go: “my God I had no idea. I went to like 20 years of therapy, I could have had one session with you and this could have been fixed!”

“ like nice things, but I don’t need to have a huge accumulation of things in order to find peace and comfort within myself.”

Every session is based on people being able to learn and understand. The reason most people come to me is because they love it. For example, a Wall Street Exec said “the reason I would fly anywhere in the world to work with you, is because I don’t only just get a session with you where I get to clearer things out of my life which help me improve, but also that I learn from you.”

That must put pressure on you?

No, not at all. That’s why I’m the go-to shaman in the world. I can handle anything under pressure and stress. When I’m dealing with a Hollywood personality or someone who is in that world and has major

Š Amir Magal

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INTERVIEW

anxiety, the first thing I do is analyse. In shamanism we understand that anxiety means that you are holding too much energy in your being. So, we do a decompression exercise where I begin to decompress all of that energy out of them and open up their neural pathways so that they are able to think clearly and be more grounded and focused in their energy.

Anxiety is energy being in stored the wrong place and not directed correctly?

Exactly. Can you imagine, you are a Hollywood actress or actor and you have got everyone wanting to be in your business, you have got a movie coming out, you have got people signing autographs, you have got people in your face who are paparazzi, you have got your family, you have your friends and then you have got all these other thoughts going on like, am I good looking enough? Am I there? Do people really like me? Are they pretending? You have all that going on and then you have a million other things going on and then you have to get into the character that is very different from who you are as a person. So, you have to download this information and knowledge which means you are pulling in negative energy and all of that is stuck inside your body. So, when I put them to decompression all of that gets relieved and their suicide thoughts go away, their idea of doing drugs goes away, their need for extreme alcohol goes away and they become grounded and get ready to take on what needs to be take on.

You remember having spiritual experiences when you were as little as two. It must be strange living in a world where people don’t experience things in the same way as you do?

It felt a whole lot strange when I was growing up.

However, now, it doesn’t feel strange because what I do is hone in on a person and what they can see and then I teach them what that is. That opens up other gifts inside of them, and it becomes a floodgate of other types of skills that are inside of them that they didn’t even realise that they were able to operate.

You are a third generation Shaman. Do you feel like you have inherited your ability, and do you feel like you are going to pass it on?

My niece denied her abilities for a long time, but she has been able to feel energy and power moving through her body and she has been able to see spirits. All of these things are opening up for her and I do think that I’m passing on my lineage.

I believe that with every person I meet and connect with who learns from me, I’m giving them a piece of the light of my lineage or a piece of that energy. I’m passing it onto the world. That’s how I look at it. I’m a Shaman for the people. I’m here for everyone on this planet to recognise the potential of their being.

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You mentioned you speak to spirits and guides who are around you?

I hear spirits talking to me all the time and what I do is decide who I want to listen to and if it’s necessary ask questions. If I’m with someone I will ask the spirit to show me their ‘file’. Like, what is the thing that they are working on the most? What is something that is coming up for them that they really need to look at to make it successful?

The spirit world is vast and so there are so many spirits available and I teach people how to do it themselves. What I will do is, I will take you to go talk to them and that’s really more life-changing for people.

A lot of your work helps people to change or refocus their energy. Why do you think we get so distracted and get it so wrong in the first place?

I think it starts from childhood. Most human beings need to be loved and valued and so they do things in order to get that kind of badge of honour. They’re like; “look at what I own, I’m very successful. Look at who I’m dating. I’m amazing!” But all of these things are actually superficial to the spirit. I know many billionaires who are very miserable and very unhappy, and they can buy anything they want, but it’s not fulfilling them and that’s because they are not fulfilled from within. I help them become fulfilled within.

Do you think we are under more stress these days? Are things more troubled, more difficult, or is that just how we perceive it?

I would say absolutely. If you are processing information on a slow level and the onset of data is much higher, you will suffer major anxiety, which can lead to all kinds of health problems.

One of the reasons why so many people are committing suicide is because the mental health system is failing. They are overloaded in their systems and every time they go to a psychologist they sit and talk to them and they say: “we are going to recommend this type of medication for you.” That’s not the cure. That’s not how we fix the problem. If we keep ignoring the symptoms, things will just continue to get worse and worse.

Church attendances are dropping, and people are less religious. Do you think there is a change in what people are seeking spiritually?

I studied world religion, and one of the things that I found is how humans have an entrenched idea of God. In the beginning people followed whatever they believed in order to be loved and in order to not get into trouble. God was presented to them in a very Santa Claus way: you do good, you get rewarded. You do bad, you get punished. That creates an imbalance within the system, because the subconscious mind immediately says: the creator that created me basically can destroy me if I do something wrong.

© Firat Giraygil

The reason a lot of people are getting out of the church system and looking so much more to shamanism and spiritual ways of living their lives is because they are waking up. Reality teaches you to ask how any can anything so powerful create something so majestically beautiful but then yet resort to something as primal as jealousy and anger and punishment.

“I know many billionaires who are very miserable and very unhappy, and they can buy anything they want, but it’s not fulfilling . . . and that’s because they are not fulfilled from within. I help them become fulfilled within” You recently spoke about the #metoo movement. How do you think women can empower themselves spiritually?

I think the first key in the whole #metoo movement is understanding that women want to be able to have a voice because they feel like they have been silenced.

Women live a very different life than men. Men can

walk down the street and women can go like, you are hot, sexy baby, you are amazing, I want you, but men are not afraid that that woman is going to follow her and trap him in a street somewhere and assault him.

Whereas, for a woman on the other hand, it’s the concern of, will the man using his aggressive nature to force what he wants from her.

It is about women finding their voice. But the last thing anyone wants to do is shut down men?

Right and I think that’s the other parallel that I’m working on with women – helping them get out of this like “I have been angry for so long and now I’m going to take it out on every man that I see and just basically classify all men as being misogynist pigs”. I think there comes a point where women have to kind of like sit back and realise that men are dealing with their own issues that haven’t been addressed spiritually, emotionally and mentally for us on planet earth.

We have been told by our fathers you have got to be strong, you have to be bread winners of our homes, that we have got to be able to have money in the bank so that we can build a home and have a family one day.

I remember my father saying to me every time I had a tear in my eye: “you better not be crying and if you do I’m going to count to 10 and then I’m going to give you, something to cry about!” He was threatened by my emotions and it taught me something about myself, because I realised a lot of my male friends have the same issues, and when I started travelling around the world I understood men have the same issues.

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© Firat Giraygil

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But do you think we have more in common what’s different?

The only difference is that women can see quantumly and men see in a linear way. Men are not able to see all the different nuances that women see – we look at what’s in front of us, where we are going, what’s happening right now, who we are talking to, whereas, women are looking at if you walked over there and if you walked in that direction, you could get hit by a car or if you sat in this chair this way you could fall or if the baby stands close to the balcony there a good chance there is a probable chance that that baby can fall over the balcony. So, they are looking at every quantum experience of danger that can happen.

Where are you planning to go in the next 12 months?

I will be in the UK, I will be in Spain, I will be in Switzerland and Italy. I’m going Colombia, Mexico, Canada, New York, Miami and Iceland.

Where would you consider home?

I don’t really consider home any place because I’m always been called on the road to assist and support this world. I used to have a house in Hollywood in the Hollywood hills area and I got rid of it because I was living in Sweden and one day I woke up and I’m like, why am I paying all this money for this house and I don’t need to? I don’t need things. I’m not the type of person impressed by Rolexes.

I like things and I like nice things, but I don’t need to have a huge accumulation of things in order to find peace and comfort within myself. I have peace and comfort from within. I’d rather be in a house with a bunch of people that I love where we are just relaxing and sleeping and eating and talking and going out and having a beautiful dinner outside. Like I used to do when I was in Italy where I could lay by the water and I knew I could look over and see my friend lying down too and we smile at each other and we are just enjoying heaven together.

We’ve now been talking for an hour, during which time, as well as patiently answering my questions, he has also offered me incredible advice and insight regarding my own character and my mother’s illness (both of which he picked up on as we spoke) and I reluctantly have to end the call – he suggests that next time he’s in London we meet for tea and I enthusiastically agree. As I put the phone down, at 6pm, I notice that the tiredness I’d felt when I initially made the call has gone and that I feel energised and ready to take on the world. Like Gwyneth I’m beginning to appreciate the worth of speaking to a Shaman. Shaman Durek is truly a force of nature and a force of nature, and someone who is truly focused on making the world a better place, person by person. www.shamandurek.com

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N e w Yo r k

L o n d o n M o s c ow j o h nv a r v a t o s . c o m Dubai – Opening Fall 2018

Nic k Jon a s New York , N Y 2018

FASHION

A NEW SENSE OF REBELLION

John Varvatos FALL / WINTER 2018

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xploring the notion of looking back to move forward, the Fall/Winter 2018 Collection picks up the John Varvatos ethos – and takes it to the streets. Injected with the vitality of downtown New York, the line-up reveals an emotive concept with an effortlessly cool execution. Juxtaposing the strength of a well-built foundation with the unrestricted movements of an on-the-pulse underground, the 2.0 man underscores his subversive virtues with a laidback confidence. As his sense of liberation builds, these dichotomies unite, creating a fresh, contemporary message that rises above today’s congested cultural landscape.

The result is a look of ease and comfort with a

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new sense of rebellion – iconic styles, revamped by street influence. Starting from the debut look, inventive layering dominates the collection with an unwavering sense of tossed-together elegance.

In a range of nutmeg hues, soft winter whites and neutral sandy tones, luxe washed velvets are worn with soft, saturated leathers and abstract-print cashmere sweaters, creating richly-textured, but not-too-precious looks.

In the emergence of John Varvatos 2.0 is a considered spontaneity. An appreciation for impeccable form with a contemporary ease.

A fresh approach to casualness that avoids today’s proliferation of sameness. A core identity imbued with a zeal for masculine modernity.

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FASHION

Signature Jewellery Collection New York, NY – Iconic fashion house, John Varvatos has developed a signature jewelry collection ever enhancing the brand’s growing lifestyle. The first collection is comprised over 100 pieces including, bracelets, cufflinks, necklaces and rings. The designs will be crafted using precious and semi-precious stones, sterling silver, bronze, brass, leather, and 18k gold. The collection has a distinctive style – strong, independent, and edgy while completely realizing the rebel spirit inherent to the Varvatos brand.

The design for the jewelery takes inspiration from the brand’s symbols, textures and color palettes. All of these elements combined create a look that echoes themes already evident in the DNA of the brand. Throughout the collection are both precious and semi-precious stones including black diamonds, sapphires, lapis lazuli, black onyx, sodalite, pyrite, gray obsidian, jasper, turquoise and labradorite. Hand-selecting the stones from various sources around the world allows for the ethical treatment of those in the industry who mine, produce and deliver these stones. Diamonds are sourced in compliance with the guidelines of the Kimberley Process, a certification system developed to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the market. The collection is hand-finished in Istanbul by artisans who share a passion and dedication to their craft.

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“Jewelry has always held an important place in our brand DNA. Last fall, while searching for the right partner to further develop and create a more robust collection, I met renowned jeweler Gurhan Orhan. We immediately connected on so many levels. Together we’ve created a very special and unique signature collection,” said John Varvatos.

Approaching this segment with confidence, vision, and a desire to break the mold has allowed John and Gurhan to create the distinct characteristics that are the foundation of the collection. It was apparent early on, that John and Gurhan share a similar style and design direction, but soon after meeting they discovered a variety of other shared interests including a passion for music and the fashion associated with it.

About John Varvatos Launched in 2000 with a collection of tailored clothing and sportswear, John Varvatos now represents an entire men’s lifestyle that includes footwear, bags, belts, eyewear, jewelry, men’s fragrances, and the John Varvatos Star USA Collection. The brand currently has 30 boutiques worldwide and is available globally in over 400 fine retailers. The brand has been recognized three times by the CFDA with an American Fashion Award for New Menswear Designer (June 2000) and Menswear Designer of the Year (June 2001 and June 2005) and was honored as GQ’s “Designer

FASHION

of the Year” in 2007. In 2015, the brand received several accolades including Most Innovative at MR Magazine’s MR Awards Honoring Game Changers in the Menswear Industry, the Cultural Icon Award at the T.J. Martell Foundation’s 40th Anniversary

Gala, the ACE Award for Designer of the Year given by the Accessories Council, and the Fashion Cares award given by the Samuel Waxman Foundation. www.johnvarvatos.com

London store: 12-13 Conduit Street, Mayfair, London W1S 2XQ

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CELEBRITY

Fight Night in Italy FLORENCE 2018

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CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT

CFN in Italy F OR T HE A ND R E A BO CELLI FO UNDATIO N AND MU HA MMA D ALI PARKINSO N CENTER

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2017 was a remarkable year for Celebrity Fight Night in Italy, here are some of the highlights.

or over two decades Celebrity Fight Night (CFN) has worked hard to provide help and support in the areas where it is most needed. In its long history of humanitarian commitment it has raised over $130 million to support multiple charities, including the projects of the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center and its research on the disease.

After twenty years of continuous success the event was ready to take the plunge and move across the ocean.

Thanks to the long collaboration with Andrea Bocelli, CFN found in Italy the perfect ground to grow into a new charity enterprise; in 2014 the then new born Andrea Bocelli Foundation (ABF) joined forces with its American counterpart to offer the 200 faithful donors a completely new concept of humanitarian event. The guests were taken on a five days journey through the excellence of Made in Italy: music, art, fashion, style, food and all the best the country had to offer and given the opportunity to combine a trip of a lifetime

Elton John

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and the chance to contribute to the causes of the Foundations at the highest level.

Thanks to the funds raised through Celebrity Fight Night in Italy the Foundation was able to implement its work in the most remote areas of Haiti achieving the construction of five schools for 2,550 students, guaranteeing them daily free access to education as well as healthcare assistance. Furthermore ABF, in 2017, was able to raise funds and build in only 150 days the new school G. Leopardi in Sarnano (Italy), a medieval village that had been severely hit by an earthquake.

Since that first year, CFN in Italy has grown from strength to strength, offering its guests the most magnificent locations, the performances of greatest talents of music and the company of the most loved names of all arts, which contribute to the creation of a unique event.

In 2017 CFN took its guest to Rome for a series of incredible, star studded nights, making that its most successful edition so far.

CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

Day 1 Day one and the guests arrive at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel Cavalieri, a sumptuous hill town in Monte Mario, surrounded by 15 hectares of lush Mediterranean nature with the best imaginable views across Rome and the Vatican. This is the fourth CFN to be held in Italy and, from the very start, the incredible high standards are apparent.

The evening is being hosted by Fregoli Luxury Handbags on the beautifully laid out terrace of the hotel, where an exceptional dinner and dessert (a wild fruit iced sphere on a tea cream with

crystallised raspberries), by the amazing Heinz Beck is served. Maestro Bocelli then pays tribute to the memory of Luciano Pavarotti, on this the tenth anniversary of his death, by singing the famous “Ah! mes amis, quel jour de fete” (from “La Fille du régiment” by Gaetano Donizetti), with its nine repeated high notes soaring to the sky. Andrea speaks to the audience about the great Luciano, calling him ‘A great artist and a great friend’, and adding ‘from him I have learnt so many things, even from the point of view of vocal technique ... I owe a lot to this man, and I loved him very much.’

Dinner at palazzo Doria Pamphilj

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CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

Matteo Bocelli

President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella

Day 2 On this day the guests are treated to a visit at the Bulgari Domus, a private museum, in the historic boutique of Via Condotti, which houses vintage collections of jewels belonging to stars – such as Elizabeth Taylor’s sapphire necklace and Anna Magnani’s brooches – as well as unique pieces that trace the history of the ‘maison of haute joaillerie’.

Then, in the early hours of the afternoon, the doors of the residence of the Italian President, the Palazzo Quirinale, are opened. Among those who have chosen the guided tour through the amazing rooms of the ancient palace is Sharon Stone.

She is then joined, in the Salone delle Feste, by 54

Sophia Loren, Sarah Ferguson, Ray Liotta, Susan Sarandon, Steven Tyler, Joe Walsh, David Foster, Amal Clooney’s mother Baria Alamuddin and Minister Dario Franceschini.

Andrea is wearing the honorary plaque of Great Officer and sings the National Anthem – ‘Canto degli Italiani’ – with the support of pianist Richard Joo and Russian violinist Aleksej Igudesman.

The President greets Andrea Bocelli and the American guests. Any formalities are lightened by the intensity and empathy within the room. This feeling is reflected in Andrea’s speech, which is full of patriotic love for his country and for the friendship for the American people.

The evening carries on with a dinner in

CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

Palazzo Colonna, hosted by Stefano Ricci. The succession of halls and of masterpieces, by Bronzino, Pisanello, Carracci, Tintoretto, found in the private gallery of Prince Prospero Colonna, are such that the Palace fills you with wonder and, when finally entering the Sala Grande della Galleria, it leaves you speechless. This is where the last scene of ‘Roman Holiday’, starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, was filmed, and it’s here, among the triumph of paintings, sculptures, frescoed mirrors and precious furnishings, that the twenty-seven tables for the Gala dinner are set. The dinner is enriched by a selection of wines

by Marchesi Antinori and is in the presence of the aforementioned stars, as well as world-class business magnates from all over the planet. Later, on stage, presented by a dazzling Maria Grazia Cucinotta, first rate artists like duo Igudesman and Joo, extraordinary, pop voice Malika Ayane and José Carreras, the iconic Spanish tenor give life to a wonderful performance.

Day 3 The whole of Rome is waiting breathlessly for the arrival of the international jet set. Because of the exclusivity of the event, the area surrounding the Colosseum has been on lock down and a wide area of the city centre has been checked, inch by inch, to ensure a safe show. There are excited Paparazzi all around, and a ‘dolce vita’ atmosphere that reminds of the splendour of Fellini’s films.

Strolling around the city one can come across Sir Elton John at a restaurant, Sharon Stone shopping and having lunch with Oscar-winner Paolo Sorrentino, and find Susan Sarandon and Steven Tyler in Trastevere. Today is the day of a oncein-a-lifetime event that will transform the ancient Flavian amphitheatre into a stage that will host a ‘Gala of the Stars’. Even Muhammad Ali would applaud such a spectacular show. He who, just like Bocelli, was able to turn the most ambitious of dreams into reality.

Andrea Bocelli, Sharon Stone and Stjepan Hauser of 2Cellos

Andrea Bocelli, Sophia Loren and Jimmy Walker, President of CFN

HM Queen Rania Al Abdullah

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CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

The streets are closed, and there is a display of security forces similar to that of State Visits, to welcome the stars of the Andrea Bocelli Show and the four hundred lucky spectators. It is without doubt the most glamorous event of the year.

The evening starts with a sumptuous dinner in Palazzo Doria Pamphilj courtesy of Euro Toques and completed by Ca’ del Bosco wines.

Cameras flash as the celebrities arrive. There is Antonio Banderas, who has taken part, along with Luisa Ranieri, in the movie dedicated to Andrea Bocelli’s life, ‘La musica del silenzio’, that found great success in cinemas worldwide; celebrities such as Sophia Loren and Bo Derek, The Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Smokey Robinson, Tony Renis and Brian McKnight, Nicoletta Mantovani Pavarotti and Jacklyn Smith, Petra Nemcova and Ray Liotta, are joined by Ministers, members

Nicholas Cage

Antonio Banderas and girlfriend Nicole Kimpel

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of royal families and prominent brands such as Bulgari, Falconeri, Julius Baer and Lear Corporation.

After Bocelli’s passionate rendition of Puccini’s ‘Nessun dorma’, comes Milly Carlucci, the Italian presenter, who, as the evening progresses, proudly shows, to guests and audience, the beauty of the monument, which is a symbol of this Eternal City.

The show lasts three hours and includes Russian star Zara, with whom Andrea sings Time to say goodbye, the trumpeter Chris Botti, with whom he performs Granada, and the award-winning composer and producer David Foster. It is then the turn of Sharon Stone who, with great enthusiasm, talks about the concert then continues with Andrea’s striking performance of Verdi’s Aria Di quella pira, before calling on stage pop star Renato Zero, who sings a duet with Andrea, performing Piu su.

CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

The Colosseum, Rome

Another, equally exciting, duet then takes place on stage: Andrea at the piano with his son Matteo, who is twenty years old and a promising tenor. Like his father, his voice is exceptional. Milly Carlucci jokingly remarks that this is ‘a family test’. Elton John then arrives, wearing his trademark eccentric glasses. He sings five of his most successful songs and then there is another memorable duet with Bocelli as the legendary Rocket Man sings Circle of life, from the film The Lion King. It is then time for the Andrea Bocelli Humanitarian Award: the award, which the previous year was given to Queen Rania of Jordan, this year is presented to the magnate Carlos Slim Helú, a hero of our times.

Day 4 After a very late night the guest are offered two options: the first is a visit to the Fendi Flagship Boutique, where they have the opportunity to create a unique piece and design one’s own bag. The second is to visit the Musei Vaticani to experience the greatest art treasures of all times and the Sistine Chapel – the fruit of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s genius. In the afternoon, another very special location is awaiting the American delegation: Minister Angelino Alfano welcomes the Bocelli family and guests for a dinner that has as an exclusive partner, the gourmet club

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CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

Michelle Hunziker, David Foster and Lionel Richie

‘Il Palato Italiano’. Twenty-three Chefs, headed up

by Executive Chef Filippo Sinisgalli, have created the menu which is served in the marvellous lounge of Villa Madama with its vaulted ceilings, whilst outside the guests are treated to a desserts buffet by Raffaello’s loggia, overlooking the Italian garden. In the nearby courtyard, the villa offers a monumental staircase, an outdoor amphitheatre, a magnificent, formal garden, and views of the River Tiber.

“Julia Argyros (president of the Argyros Family Foundation) and her daughter Stephanie officially donate one million dollars for the causes brought on by CFN in Italy”

Veronica and Andrea Bocelli, Amal and George Clooney

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During the evening, the guests shows their generosity and two great friends of the Bocelli family and of the Foundation, Julia Argyros and her daughter Stephanie officially donate one million dollars for the causes brought on by CFN in Italy.

The evening does not end here: upon returning to the hotel, the artists, cheerfully and joyfully continue performing and playing together, in an informal ‘after hours jam session’. A priceless and an eternally memorable experience under the stars of the Eternal City.

CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

Day 5 The closing night is in the heart of Cinecittà Studios, where the temples of ancient Rome have been recreated. Everything is animated by a triumph of lights and by the poetic choreography created by volcanic artist Luca Tommassini. Arrivals are scheduled for 7:00 pm, the dress code is white with a touch of blue. Inside, in the Basilica Aemilia, the room is a wonderful display of tables and of transparent chairs, reflected in the crystal glassware that encircle the elegant centrepieces of white and blue roses. Tonight, the stars of these tables will be the specialties of Eataly and a selection of Bocelli Wines. This soirée, sponsored

by AMBI Media Group, GVM and Vhernier, is full

of well-known faces and friends of the Foundation: Brian McKnight, John Corbett, Bo Derek, Antonio Banderas, Steven Tyler, Tony Renis, Catrinel Marlon, Michael Caine. The charity auction, which opens the night is led by a well-known professional in the field, Julien Vincent Brunie.

The evening’s auction features a unique marble piece signed by Gualtiero Vanelli: a coffee table in the shape of the Colosseum, made with the precious ‘Paonazzo’ marble. Also on sale are the ‘Giuseppe Verdi’ – a pen of platinum and diamonds by Aurorapen, the ‘Blue Velvet’, a bracelet in titanium with 900 diamonds signed

by Vhernier, and one of Giuseppe Carta’s famous Pomegranates the sculpture symbol of the Andrea Bocelli Humanitarian Award.

The Team of Il Palato Italiano

Aida Garifullina, Sharon Stone, Steven Tyler and Andrea Bocelli

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CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

Stefano Aversa Chairman of ABF, Minister Beatrice Lorenzin, Simone Guerrini, Diego Della Valle and partners

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CELEBRITY FIGHT NIGHT Highlights from 2017

Amal and George Clooney, Veronica and Andrea Bocelli

There is also an exclusive sofa designed by Francesco Binfaré for Edra, a fabulous watch by Jacob & Co. shining with a pavé of 360 diamonds and exceptional experiences like the Hollywood red carpet for the première of ‘Arctic Justice’, offered by AMBI Media Group, two days at the Private Fendi Suite at Palazzo Fendi in Rome, and the exclusive opportunity of spending two weeks in South Africa in close contact with lions and cheetahs, under the guidance of well-known environmental explorer Johan Ernst Nilson.

The evening, presented by Melissa Peterman, continues on stage with Andrea Bocelli singing duets with Kristin Chenoweth and Brian McKnight,

then David Foster, Reba McEntire, Brooks and Dunn, The Band Perry, Joe Walsh, Anastasiya Petryshak, Joe Walsh, Kristin Chenoweth and the extraordinary, timeless Smokey Robinson before the evening comes to an end.

“Every end calls for a beginning; this is a truthful and reassuring law. Now we have carried out, together, what seemed impossible to realise a year ago, our heart is already working towards the 2018 CFN – with the hope that next year, we will hear our guests say once again: ‘this has been, no doubt, the best one’” Veronica Berti Bocelli Thank you to Giorgio De Martino

Andrea Bocelli, Sharone Stone and Milly Carlucci

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INTERVIEW

Carly Paoli THE SOUND OF SUCCESS

F

rom relatively quiet beginnings Carly Paoli seems poised to take the classical music world by storm. Aged just 29, her glorious voice has received worldwide attention, having already sung with Jose Carreras and Andrea Bocelli, she has had her music celebrated by the Pope and was nominated for a Classic Brit award for the 2018 ‘Sound of Classical’ poll. She’s currently celebrating the release of both a new single with the Invictus Games Choir and a new live album.

Your Italian heritage is mentioned a lot, how do you think this has influenced your taste in music and your aspirations?

My family come right from the South of Italy, in Puglia – it’s a stunning place, they call It the Florence of the South. As a child I would spend all of my summers there with my grandfather and all of my cousins, we all kind of lived in the same apartment block which was amazing. As I got older it meant that I’d be studying the performing arts in school, but then as soon as school broke up for the summer I’d be out there with my family and working – singing in all the piazzas. It was great fun and yeah of course it did influence my choice of songs, and songs that moved me.

Much is made of the fact that you’re a lorry driver’s daughter – is it still unusual to come from a workingclass background in your profession?

It’s still a world where, I find especially here in the UK, that people make assumptions about class.

My parents weren’t musical at all – my father was a lorry driver and my mother worked in a travel agents. They noticed that I had this passion for music from as young as 5 years old. So, my mum took me to Stagecoach and she got me private singing lessons. But financially it was a problem in the sense that, if I hadn’t had won scholarships to the performing arts schools, possibly I wouldn’t be in the position that I am today because- as much

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as they would have wished to – they wouldn’t have been able to fund it.

Scholarships meant that I was able to go to these amazing places. It’s funny, I was at the Classic Brits in June and Andrew Lloyd Webber came on stage and was quite vocal about how sad it is that music is so underfunded in state schools.. I stood on my feet when I heard that, because I think school is the time when you discover what sort of person you are. It’s something that I’ve become quite proactive about – a few weeks back I did a music workshop in a primary school and it was amazing. They brought the whole school into their hall and we taught them the Lloyd Webber song ‘When Children Rule the World’ and they just had a blast. They loved every minute, they sounded fantastic and that’s something I’m going to be doing more of.

You’re known as a ‘cross-over artist’ because your work embraces both classical opera and more popular material from musicals. Do you think the line between the two forms is blurring – for example is opera becoming more accessible because it’s on the same bills as musicals?

When I perform a piece, I don’t take away the quality of the way I sing or really change much about the way I sing, that’s something that always stays consistent. People do tend to put labels on music, there should only be two labels: good and bad music.

Lloyd Webber is sort of the Puccini of today. The things that are common, with both classical and musical theatre is always the storyline, it’s always about communicating the text to an audience.

As a singer, is one musical form more challenging?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I can’t call myself an opera singer because I’ve never performed in an opera, as of yet – it’s something I really aspire to in the future. But of course in my concerts, I do perform arias and yes, some of them are really challenging.

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INTERVIEW

With Andrea Bocelli

You’ve already sung with some astonishing people like Jose Carreras and Andrea Bocelli – that must have been amazing? Do you have a ‘wish list’ of people you’d like to perform with?

There’s one gentleman in particular that I adore listening to, he’s a Christian singer called David Phelps. He’s just got one of the most sublime voices, he really has and he’s somebody that I’d love to be able to collaborate with one day on a song.

You’ve been nominated for the Sound Of Classical 2018! – how did you feel when you heard about your nomination?

It was one of those phone calls I think I’ll never forget because my manager rang me up, and he said “have you got a quote ready?”, and I thought “what do you mean have I got a quote ready, what kind of quote?”. He said, “we’re going to the classical Brits! You’ve been nominated for the sound of classical 2018!”. It was the most stunning sensation, because it was my debut album. I’d put all of that hard work and effort in – it took three years to bring that album together, I did spend a lot of time selecting the repertoire – so it was an amazing feeling it really was.

You have just released an album of live recordings from your headline concert at Cadogan Hall. How did you choose the material for such an important performance?

To me it was a chance to, yes perform some of the songs on my album, but also venture into my own love and inspiration for music, so it did have those

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Morricone numbers that inspired me when I was in Italy. It had Disney numbers because I fell in love with the music through watching The Little Mermaid, and I had opera arias there. It was a really special night celebrating music that I love, and I hoped and believed the audience would love too. At the time I never knew it was going to be an album, it was afterwards when we received the reviews, the audience’s response and I heard back what had been recorded, that I thought “ok I know what I want to put out now for my next album”.

It’s obvious that the world is at your feet. What are your ambitions?

I love performing in Italy and I’d like to be able to share my music a little bit more in the US, because I think a lot of the songs have that real soundtrack feel to them.

I actually wrote lyrics to James Horner’s theme from Legends of The Fall. He was just one of the most amazing composers. he wrote the music for Titanic and Troy – always very epic and very nostalgic. It’s the last song on my album ‘Singing My Dreams’, and I wrote it after I’d lost my grandmother. I suppose when something difficult happens, you actually learn to express yourself in new ways, you find an outlet for that emotion. The first time I performed the song was at Windsor Castle for His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, it was a ceremony for the Prince’s Trust Foundation, and as I came off stage I found out it was all over the news that James Horner had just been killed in a plane accident – it was

INTERVIEW

tragic. I then had to get in touch with the Horner Foundation and his family, to try and get their permission to have this song (that of course I was very emotionally attached to) on my debut album.

It came to the last week before I had to submit my final track list and I wrote to his family, attaching my lyrics and a sample of the song. They came back straight away and said; “we loved it!”.

Music is very emotional – the Classic Brit Awards and other forms of recognition, must be an emotional as well as a professional recognition in a way?

It absolutely is, I think that’s what makes music wonderful. The fact that it can touch people’s souls and sometimes you can get it just right that actually, what you’re feeling is a universal emotion and can help somebody else relate to what they’re going through and help them to feel better.

Who do you listen to?

I’m a huge fan of a composer called Jason Robert Brown because he just has phenomenal lyrics. On my first album I did a cover of one of his songs – Music of Heaven. David Phelps – not only is his voice sublime, the lyrics are sublime as well and they really uplift me. And Meatloaf – I love Bat Out of Hell – it’s just kind of a story already there and of course, now it’s a musical in the West End. Do you have a favourite performance that you’ve given so far, where you’ve really felt that it meant something?

In 2016 my song ‘Ave Maria’ became the official song for the Pope’s Jubilee Year of Mercy. It is a

beautiful song that kind of spoke about how the world has suffered, but at the same time, there’s still so much to celebrate and it’s time now to pray together. That song became the theme for this iconic Holy Year in Italy, and across the world because it was for all Catholics. That led to me headlining a concert in the Roman Forum called Music for Mercy which was just the most epic setting, with some of the world’s most celebrated artists. I was on stage with Andrea Bocelli, Elaine Paige, David Foster and we were all there to communicate with the community this allimportant message of mercy. It was magic.

Tell me about your new single?

It’s called ‘Liberty’, which is a single that has been composed by Walter Afanasieff and was recorded with the Invictus Games Choir. The video, which includes snippets of our special day recording the songs in both Abbey Road and Strongroom studios, went to number 1 in the iTunes chart. Proceeds from the song will be going to Help for Heroes.

It’s sort of the perfect song, the lyrics of the chorus are: “alive the fire in our hearts will never die, alive for freedom we are standing you and I, united joined as one, the sun will never set on liberty”, so it’s a song that really commemorates the hundred years post World War One.I think this year really is a year to celebrate where we are and the liberty that we have because of what people gave up for us.

By Joanne Walker www.carlypaoli.com

With Jose Carreras

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GIOTTO ART FUND

By White Rock Securitization Assets Management SCC PLC. info@whiterock-scc.com

WHERE

Art & Culture MEET

The Bolshoi, Moscow Matilda Diamant

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69

CULTURE

L A S C A L A , M I L A N , I TA LY Milan’s Teatro alla Scala is without doubt one of the most famous opera houses in the

ingenious features is the concave channel under the wooden floor of the orchestra; this is credited with giving the theatre superb acoustics.

world, the one most associated with “opera.”

The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778

T E AT R O D I S A N C A R L O ,

and was originally known as the Nuovo Regio

N A P L E S , I TA LY

Ducale Teatro alla Scala (New Royal-Ducal

Next to Plebiscito Square, one of the

Theatre alla Scala). The premiere performance

symbols of Naples, stands the shrine to

was Antonio Salieri’s Europa riconosciuta.

Italian opera, whose foundation precedes the

Most of Italy’s greatest operatic artists, and

Scala theatre in Milan by 41 years and the

many of the finest singers from around the

Fenice theatre in Venice by 55 years. It was in

world, have appeared at La Scala. The theatre

1737 that the first king of Bourbon, Charles

also has an associate school, known as the La

III became the promoter of a project that

Scala Theatre Academy (Italian: Accademia

combined magnificence with amazement and

Teatro alla Scala), which offers professional

became a clear sign of his power: a theatre! It

training in music, dance, stage craft and stage

was the architect Giovanni Antonio Medrano,

management. It is the home of Rossini, Bellini,

the Spanish colonel brigadier stationed in

Donizetti, and Verdi. One of La Scala’s most

Naples, who was responsible for the design.

Teatro La Scala, Milan

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CULTURE

The work was contracted to Angelo Carasale

Prince the ‘privilege’ of organising theatre

who completed the “real fabrica” in about

performances, masquerades, balls and other

eight months at a cost of over 75.000

forms of entertainment for a period of ten

ducats, according to contemporary accounts.

years. It is from this date that Moscow’s

Medrano’s design was of a hall of 28.6 x 22.5

Bolshoi Theatre traces its history.

mt, with 184 boxes distributed in six tiers

One of Russia’s premier theatres, coupled

and a Royal box for ten people, for a total

with one of the best symphony orchestras in

amount of 1379 seats. The opening evening

the world, the Bolshoi in Moscow has survived

of November, 4th, the sovereign’s name day,

fire, war, and revolution. Its stunning neoclassic

was celebrated with the performance of

portico, topped by a statue of Apollo in his

Achilles in Sciro by Pietro Metastasio, with

chariot, is a precursor to the magnificent

music by Domenico Sarro and “two dances

splendour visitors will find when they venture

as an intermezzo” created by Grossatesta and

inside. The Bolshoi closed in 2005 for extensive

scenes by Pietro Righini.

interior renovations and reopened in the fall of 2011. Here, Yuri Grigorovich choreographed

T H E R O YA L O P E R A

memorable productions of Swan Lake, The

HOUSE, LONDON,

Golden Age, and Romanda.

ENGLAND The Royal Opera House (ROH) is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply “Covent Garden”, after a previous use of the site of the opera house’s original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later, Handel’s first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.

Operà paris Leonardo Passero

T H E B O L S H O I , M O S C O W, RUSSIA The Bolshoi Theatre began its life as the

PA R I S O P É R A , PA R I S , FRANCE

private theatre of the Moscow prosecutor

The main facade of the Opéra is an

Prince Pyotr Urusov. On 28 March 1776,

imposing sight, even in Paris, a city filled with

Empress Catherine II signed and granted the

architectural marvels. The Ballet of the Opéra 71

CULTURE

opened its doors to women dancers for the first

weddings and to honour foreign sovereigns,

time in 1681. The highly ornamented building

for whom balls or shows were organised. The

with its crowning dome was built in 1875. The

theatre was last used for a celebration of the

grand theatre within is suitable for both ballet

French Court on 18 July 1784, when a ball

and opera. Some of the greatest ceremonial

was given in honour of the King of Sweden

spaces in the world are here at the Paris Opéra,

Gustave III. The Banquet of the Guards, five

lending their sublimity to lofty occasions. The

years later on 1st October 1789, was the last

rich and striking interiors capture the tastes

event held here during the Ancien Régime.

and attitudes of France’s Second Empire. In 1962, Marc Chagall created new frescoes on

V I E N N A S TA AT S O P E R ,

the centre of the Palais Garnier’s ceiling. The

VIENNA, AUSTRIA

result, nothing short of spectacular, is all the

The structure of the opera house was

more remarkable for not conflicting with the

planned by the Viennese architect August

formal character of the interior decor.

Sicard von Sicardsburg, while the inside was designed by interior decorator Eduard

72

O P É R A R O YA L ,

van der Nüll. It was also impacted by other

VERSAILLES COURT

major artists such as Moritz von Schwind,

T H E AT R E , F R A N C E

who painted the frescoes in the foyer, and

The Royal Opera House is one of the

the famous “Zauberflöten” (“Magic Flute”)

greatest works by the architect Ange-Jacques

series of frescoes on the veranda. Neither of

Gabriel. Inaugurated in 1770 during the

the architects survived to see the opening of

reign of Louis XV, it was at the time the

‘their’ opera house: the sensitive van der Nüll

largest concert hall in Europe, and was

committed suicide, and his friend Sicardsburg

also a great technical achievement and an

died of a stroke soon afterwards. Built in

impressive feat of decorative refinement. A

1869, the Staatsoper was inaugurated with

theatre for monarchic and then republican

a performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

life, it has hosted celebrations, shows and

Its reputation as the centre of Viennese

parliamentary debates. The interior of the

musical life has long been established, and

Opéra Royal in the famously opulent palace

the Staatsoper remains one of the world’s

of Versailles is a clever creation. The wooden

top opera houses. Although much of it was

walls were actually painted to resemble

destroyed on March 12, 1945, when the Allies

marble. Gold is harmoniously blended with

bombed the city toward the end of World War

the pinks and greens of the marbling and the

II, the grand staircase and some of the other

sky-blue curtain and upholstery. Inaugurated

public areas miraculously survived. For an idea

on 16 May 1770 for the feast for the wedding

of how things looked before the air raid, walk

of the Dauphin and the Archduchess Marie-

through the main doors into the box office

Antoinette, this extraordinary theatre was

foyer. The theatre you see now reopened after

used only 40 or so times before the Revolution

the Russian occupation of Austria ended, and

(the cost, although high, was not the only

the first piece performed there was Ludwig

reason for its limited use). It was used for royal

van Beethoven’s Fidelio, a hymn to freedom.

CULTURE

Sydney Opera House

TEATRO COLON, BUENOS

venue’s acoustic qualities as well as offer

AIRES, ARGENTINA

pleasing aesthetics. All major performance

The Teatro Colón is the main opera

areas have their own foyers.

house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is ranked the third best opera house in the world by

LINCOLN CENTRE, NEW

National Geographic, and is acoustically

YORK, NEW YORK

considered to be amongst the five best

Lincoln Centre for the Performing Arts is

concert venues in the world. Completed in

a 16.3-acre (6.6-hectare) complex of buildings

1908 the building carries many styles that

in the Lincoln Square neighbourhood of

are associated with European designs. Many

the borough of Manhattan in New York

famous artists have graced its stage.

City. It hosts many notable performing arts organizations, which are nationally and

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE,

internationally renowned, including the New

S Y D N E Y, A U S T R A L I A

York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera,

Situated on a piece of land that projects

the New York City Ballet and the New York

out into Sydney’s harbour, the stunning

City Opera. Home to the Metropolitan

contemporary Sydney Opera House has

Opera, New York Philharmonic, and New

wonderful views. If you prefer just to take a

York City Ballet, Lincoln Centre for the

look around rather than watch a performance,

Performing Arts also houses a library and two

you might want to visit the opera house just to

theatres. The centre advances not only classic

see the building; tours are offered frequently.

performance but also innovation. Operas at

The structure was designed by Jørn Utzon to

the Met are regularly filmed and presented

suggest a series of overlapping shells and sails.

live in theatres around the world. The Lincoln

The grand opening took place in 1973; the

Centre Institute for the Arts in Education is

first public performance was Prokofiev’s War

a global repertory promoting inspiration and

and Peace. Inside, each theatre is panelled

creativity for students and professionals.

in different types of wood to enhance the

Extracts from various sources 73

CULTURE Highlights from Opera Holland Park, 2018

A Sensational Opera Season

T

he champagne was chilled. The canapés were ready. The weather forecast had been checked and checked again. Those who work in the performing arts know that it’s dangerous to feel too confident on an opening night but the buzz around Rodula Gaitanou’s production of La traviata had been building through weeks of rehearsal in studio and on stage at the theatre. Opera Holland Park works all year round in outreach projects, in intimate performances for sponsors and supporters, in ancillary events that draw in experts from the worlds of music and visual art, in identifying and nurturing emerging artists, in fundraising and in developing concepts, casting, designs and repertoire choices for the seasons ahead. The first night is when everything comes together: a company of twenty people becomes a company of two hundred, from principals to front of house staff, all intent on an audience of a thousand.

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Situated in the heart of one of the most beautiful parks in central London, with the Grade I listed Jacobean elevation of Holland House as backdrop to an elegant temporary theatre, Opera Holland Park plays a unique role in the British summer opera season. Glance at the formal gardens and woodlands around us and you could be in a country estate. Canapés, themed to each opera, and on-site catering are run by The Admirable Crichton, caterers to Her Majesty the Queen. Pre-show picnickers and audience members who simply want to enjoy a cocktail in our grounds are always welcome. There the resemblance to country house opera ends. Opera Holland Park is an urban company with deep connections to the local community and high artistic standards.

Cognoscenti and newcomers alike can feel at home. Tube and bus routes are nearby. Pre-show picnickers and audience members who simply want to enjoy a cocktail on the terrace are always

welcome but there is no long dinner interval to break the spell cast by the dramas on stage, and no dress code. Some people dress up. Some dress down. As General Director Michael Volpe and Director of Opera James Clutton say, we are looking at the performers not the audience.

The rehearsal buzz was right. “It is a long time since any La traviata looked and felt as beguiling as this” wrote Richard Fairman in the Financial Times. Subtly updated to the 1880s, with costumes that nodded to the paintings of John Singer Sargent, Gaitanou’s production of Verdi’s tragedy of first and last love in the Parisian demi-monde received a string of four- and five-star reviews and was sold out within days. In print and online, critics praised the quality of the supporting cast and the work of the Opera Holland Park chorus, the beauty of Cordelia Chisholm’s designs, the vivacity of Steve Elias’s choreography, and the detail in former OHP Young Artist Matthew Waldren’s conducting of the City of London Sinfonia. The Australian soprano Lauren Fagan’s role debut as Violetta, the consumptive courtesan, was hailed as remarkable in The Sunday Times, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Mail on Sunday and The Stage.

‘Classic with a twist’ is James Clutton’s maxim for productions of core repertoire like La traviata.

One twist in Gaitanou’s staging was gender fluidity. Oliver Platt’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte followed suit, conjuring the Grand Tour dandies, street musicians, exotic tradesmen, soldiers, aristocrats, pickpockets and transvestites of eighteenth century Naples in Allyson Cummins’s Zoffanyesque costumes and ingenious set: a coffee house, tailor’s shop, drawing room, quayside and garden. As Mozart and his father had discovered

in 1770, Naples was a city where identities could be changed with a change of costume, the perfect setting for a comedy of disguises and deceptions in which two sets of naïve lovers are educated in the ways of the world. The Stage hailed the “expert vocalism” of the central sextet, Sarah Tynan, Peter Coleman-Wright, Eleanor Dennis, Kitty Whately, Nick Pritchard and Nicholas Lester, while conductor Dane Lam and the City of London Sinfonia were lauded for their litheness and flexibility.

Glamorous events with themed cocktails are only part of our work. On and offstage, Opera Holland Park challenges the idea that opera is elitist or inaccessible. On June 13, the OHP Young Artists gave their first performance of La traviata in the company’s inaugural Schools’ Matinee. Working alongside the main cast and creatives throughout the rehearsal period, young director Cecilia Stinton and young conductor Harry Sever had prepared their own interpretations of the central story within the framework of the grand scenes for chorus that Verdi uses for contrast and context. Praised for her performance as Young Heidi in Dominic Cooke’s National Theatre production of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, lyric soprano Alison Langer shone as Violetta alongside Stephen Aviss’s Alfredo in front of an audience of a thousand local school children. For many, it was their first experience of live opera. Performed in full, with no cuts and no softening of the subject matter, La traviata was a triumph. The youngest audience of the season was also the most attentive, and their cheering at the curtain call could be heard across the park.

Later that day, Opera Holland Park produced the Hope for Grenfell Memorial Gala to mark the first anniversary of the fire in which 71 people

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CULTURE Highlights from Opera Holland Park, 2018

died, among them Debbie Lamprell, a much loved member of staff. Guests from outside the world of opera including actors Dame Penelope Wilton, Imelda Staunton, Jim Carter and Celia Imrie joined OHP principals and chorus members, and children and adults from the local community on stage to remember those who had been lost. The gala programme of arias, ensembles, readings and songs included the premiere of Will Todd’s arrangement of Amazing Grace for chorus and orchestra, and the premiere of Help Me Believe, co-created by Todd and Gareth Malone with the community, and raised over £100k for Rugby Portobello Trust’s ongoing work with children and young adults from the borough.

Across the 2018 season, newcomers to opera were welcomed to Opera Holland Park through the International Opera Awards-winning Inspire programme of free ticket schemes and the Playlist for Life and Opera for Thought projects. On the opening night of the season we were thrilled to welcome the eight teenagers who had starred in

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Michael Volpe’s BBC Arts documentary, From HipHop to Opera. On the annual OHP Open Day, in collaboration with the British Red Cross, young people who had travelled unaccompanied to Britain from than twenty different countries gave the premiere of Refuge in Harmony, a piece created in Inspire workshops from their own stories and performed with designs of their own creation. Tea parties, face painting, a scratch chorus rehearsal and performance of ‘Va pensiero’ from Verdi’s Nabucco, a chance to conduct the City of London Sinfonia in music by Bizet, Brahms and Offenbach, and a round table discussion with singers, producers, directors and conductors were among the additional events.

Co-produced with Scottish Opera, directordesigner Antony McDonald’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos featured circus skills from plate-spinning and knife-throwing to slapstick and trapeze, all presented in a deliciously stylish and sexy backstage comedy of artistic egos and broken hearts. Coloratura soprano Jennifer France, whose professional breakthrough role was as the Controller in OHP’s 2015 production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight, returned as Zerbinetta, the comedienne who disrupts the premiere of a tragic opera, juggling vocal fireworks with dancing en pointe and performing a striptease. Conducted by Brad Cohen, this was Opera Holland Park’s first production of an opera by Richard Strauss, and was celebrated for its insight, freshness, conviction and musical refinement in The Guardian, The Observer, The London Evening Standard and the Financial Times.

The UK premiere of Mascagni’s 1911 medieval fantasy, Isabeau, was sold out before its opening night, drawing press from Italy and Spain and lovers of late Romantic Italian opera from across the world. The latest in OHP’s acclaimed strand of verismo and giovane scuola rarities, it was the company’s first transatlantic co-production and will be revived by New York City Opera in September 2019. The French soprano Anne Sophie Duprels was described as a “touching, impassioned, vocally fearless” Isabeau in The Sunday Times, while the British tenor David Butt Philip’s performance was called “ardent and heroic”. Seldom staged since the Second World War, Isabeau provided a dynamic workout for the OHP Chorus and an enlarged City of London Sinfonia with six onstage trumpets, conducted by Francesco Cilluffo.

For two months, time stops in Holland Park.

Especially when the weather is hot. Before you

know it, the season is over, the theatre is being dismantled and work begins on the following season. A few days after the OHP Schools’ Matinee, the winners of the European Opera Prize for creative teams under the age of 35 were announced, and we were pleased to welcome director Karolina Sofulak and designer George Leigh, who will be working on Puccini’s Manon Lescaut in 2019. Gaitanou returns to direct Un ballo in maschera, with Duprels as Amelia, the apex of the love triangle in the opera that was called ‘Verdi’s Tristan’. David Butt Philip also returns, in the role of Vaudémont in Tchaikovksy’s final opera,

Iolanta. Associate director on Martin Lloyd Evans’s production of Isabeau, the young Scottish director John Wilkie makes his directorial debut with Wolf-Ferrari’s comedy, Il segreto di Susanna. Then there is Cilea’s L’arlesiana, another Italian rarity, and another group of Young Artists to nurture and mentor. In May, we will be in the rehearsal studio again, then back in the theatre in the park, feeling the pre-season buzz. The champagne will be chilled, the canapés ready, the weather forecast checked. Come and join us. www.operahollandpark.com

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Louise McNaught Louise McNaught completed her Fine Art Degree BSc (Hons) in 2012 at the University of Greenwich, and she has continued to work as a professional artist ever since, with international representation - seeing her work in collections all over the world. Her artwork has also been featured in art fairs in Milan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Stockholm, Brussels and all over the UK. Louise‘s creations feature nature and animals, where the animals are God-like, sublime and ethereal in their presence and depiction. McNaught’s work is motivated by emotive and spiritual experiences which has manifested in a mixed-media approach. Her soft style suggests a delicate relationship between nature and ourselves, making a clear point about man’s destruction of nature - which flutters jewellike in the balance. When focusing on endangered species the imagery often takes on a duality of not only what is happening to the animal itself, but also reflects how we feel psychologically about the effect the human race is having on these species.

By subverting traditional representation, she hints at darker consequences, yet paradoxically giving animals an elevated status. Her animals are a medium for self-expression, as lack of context and background suspends the creatures in an internal or even numinous space, where they become a metaphor for the human condition and psyche. By drawing the viewers’ attention to the animal’s presence and energy, Louise is hoping to share with the viewer the awe that the natural world inspires within her. www.liberty-gallery.com www.louisemcnaught.com 78

Top left: Louise McNaught painting Pandering, oil, acrylic and spray paint, 80x80 cm Above: Northern Light, oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 70x70 cm Below: Ashes, Ashes We All Fall Down, giclee on Somerset velvet 330 gsm paper, 60x60 cm, edition of 25

Keith Haynes London-born, Keith Haynes is a contemporary artist whose work is driven by a passion for music and design. Nostalgic and playful, Keith’s work has carved a distinctive niche in Pop Art culture, blending subject and object through his use of the ‘clutter’ of popular culture – button badges, album covers, and vinyl records.

With his love of graphic design, Keith creates work of striking visual acuity, playing with texture, colour and composition to generate an eye-catching aesthetic. Retrospective and yet also forward-looking, Keith has found a delicate way of holding onto our tactile past, refusing the onslaught of digitalisation.

Whether it’s a graphically iconic portrait, a map or song lyric, each piece is created from a material that enhances the subject matter.

In his “Hitsville” map series of works, Keith selects each vinyl record based on the song’s title and the beauty and originality of the record label. Look closely, and you’ll spot the geographical relevance of each record’s positioning, allowing the final piece to become not just a graphic representation but also an evocation of place through sound and music. With this approach the subject is the object, and vice versa.

His work has been exhibited extensively in the UK and overseas and can be found in private collections in Europe, America, Canada, Asia and Australia.. www.liberty-gallery.com Top: Artpop 90cm x 90cm Unique edition of 10 Left: Hitsville UK– Part of the Union Unique edition of 10 150cm x 100cm Perspex Box Case Below: Dylan a la Milton Glaser 70 x 70cm Perspex Box Case Unique edition of 10

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Francis Bloomfield Frances Bloomfield is an artist living and working in Brighton. Following the completion of her degree in Fine Art from Ravensbourne College of Art she exhibited with several galleries. Bloomfield was also a senior lecturer in graphic design for several years at The Cass School of Art & Design and the University of the Arts in London.

During the last 6 years Frances Bloomfield has created a significant body of work, which she has exhibited widely.

Her work can best be described as a series of fascinating dreamscapes exquisitely created in three-dimensional collage. Each piece is like a small theatre set which plays with space and perspective to draw the viewer into the curious worlds she creates.

The subject matter is drawn from the domestic, the industrial and the natural worlds but there are recurrent themes throughout her body of work. Notably there is always a suggestion of parallel realities – it might be a juxtaposition of what is considered ‘real’ and what is imagined or desired or the conflict between the façade and what could really be occurring behind it. However the meanings are not prescriptive and it is for the viewer to contemplate and reflect upon these mysterious scenarios.

Inspiration for the work comes from an eclectic range of sources: industrial ruins, the back streets of several European cities, geometry and wiring diagrams, maps and plans, detritus from the seashore, unusual found objects and various texts most notably writing from R.D.Laing, Gaston Bachelard and Italo Calvino. www.francesbloomfield.com www.liberty-gallery.com

Top left: Conflit Cosmique Middle: Rituel Domestique Bottom: Dialogue Domestique

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Bonnie and Clyde British artist Steph Burnley (aka Bonnie and Clyde) is known for her distinctively dizzying, large-scale collages, which distort and dismantle urban space to create fantastical utopian vistas.

A graduate of Kingston University, where she studied 3D design, Burnley’s career has been characterised by its diversity, shifting from the sculptural, to the graphic, to photography and screen printing – traces of which can all be found in her nowiconic artworks.

The heat-hazed topography of California features heavily in these imagined scenes, while Burnley’s jet-setter spirit is reflected in the host of urban centres such as Tokyo, London and Havana.

Peppering the landscapes, her passion for twentieth-century architecture – from Modernism, to Brutalism, to Po-Mo and beyond – suffuses the overall aesthetic.

Using self-taken photographs, Burnley works with combinations of monochrome and saturated colours, collaged with textured paint, heavy paper, and printed material. Each work undergoes its own journey, through a combination of digital and tactile processes, as Burnley painstakingly plays with layers of material until the final collage takes shape.

With its cut-up, bricolage perspective, each abstracted piece tells a story: a non-linear narrative of the individual navigating the city, which is always raw as well as beautiful, honest while magnetic.

Today, she works from her studio in Brighton, UK and exhibits her work with Liberty Gallery, who represent her work throughout the UK, Europe and the US.

Top left: Angels and Liquor – Limited edition print, archival pigment inks with silkscreen and glazes on Fabriano paper, 80 x 115 cms.

Signed limited edition of 60 Top right: Ice Cream Plaza – Limited edition print, archival pigment inks with silkscreen and glazes on Fabriano paper, 82 x 115 cms.

Signed limited edition of 60 Below: The Soundscape – Original mixed media collage, 36 x 36 cms

www.liberty-gallery.com www.bonnieandclydeart.com 81

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STYLE ICON

Coco Chanel

The Chanel brand with its interlocking Cs, and its association with all things chic – in both fashion and fragrance – is perhaps one of the best known, most iconic and most enduring in the world. Yet, for someone whose fortune on her death was estimated in millions of dollars, its founder Coco Chanel had remarkably humble beginnings.

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oco Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel in 1883, to impoverished, unmarried parents. When her mother died, she was sent to an orphanage run by the convent of Aubazine.

It was perhaps here that the seeds of her fashion empire were sewn: her convent education included lessons in sewing which enabled her to gain employment as a seamstress in a draper’s store and with a tailor, for whom she altered breeches for cavalry officers.

Her work led to friendships with the officers, visits to concerts with them and even to a regular slot singing on stage and a change of name: she became well known for the only two songs she had in her repertoire ‘Ko Ko Ri Ko’ and ‘Qui qu’a vu Coco’ which, according to her biographer Justine Picardie, led to her becoming known as Coco. She began a relationship with rich cavalry officer Etienne Balsan and, with his support, moved to Paris, where she began designing and making hats for herself and her friends. According to Picardie, the hats she created were “stripped of embellishments, of the frills and furbelows that she dismissed as weighing a woman down”, an early indication of the sense of style that would lead to her becoming noticed in fashion circles. Through Balsan she met, and later began an affair with, the equally wealthy Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel. Between them, these two men financed the millinery business, Chanel Modes, that would eventually led to the creation of the House of Chanel.

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STYLE

As her millinery business began to thrive, Chanel turned her attention to clothing. In a post-Chanel world, where the ‘little black dress’ is an accepted wardrobe essential, it’s difficult to comprehend that the simple style which epitomizes the Chanel look was groundbreaking at the time. In the early twentieth century, women’s clothing meant corsetry, colours, silk and satin. Chanel’s designs were simple, stripped back and elegant. She was instrumental in making black, a colour usually association with mourning, a colour that could be worn every day. Asserting that “I make fashion women can live in, breathe in, feel comfortable in and look younger in”, she worked with jersey (a fabric normally used for men’s underwear) for women’s fashion because it draped well and was comfortable to wear. The resulting clothes were sleek and fluid and also designed to be worn without corsets.

These minimal designs transformed women’s fashion and created shapes which still form the basis of fashion design over a century later. Her work also led to trousers becoming acceptable everyday wear for women and even to a transformation in handbag design, with the addition of practical pockets and, in 1955, a shoulder strap (handbags were usually intended to hang over the arm) to free the hands and arms.

Her approach to fragrance was no less innovative than her approach to fashion. In an age where a respectable women’s fragrance was the essence of a single garden flower and the heavier musk based perfumes tended to be associated with prostitutes and courtesans, she set out to create a new kind of blended fragrance which would express the new age and style of the 1920s. This led to the creation of Chanel No 5, a fragrance which blended traditional perfume oils such as jasmine and may rose with modern aldehydes – organic compounds of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon – which boost and preserve the scent. Chanel would later say “this is what I was waiting for. A perfume like nothing else. A woman’s perfume with the scent

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of a woman.” She also applied her sense of simple, classic design to the perfume bottle itself. Spurning a traditional ornate crystal fragrance bottle, she opted for the famous rectangular glass design with its clean lines which was designed to focus the attention on the fragrance itself. Like the iconic Chanel Suit, the Chanel fragrance bottle became such a cultural artifact that in the 1980s Andy Warhol commemorated its iconic status in his work Ads: Chanel.

“this is what I was waiting for.

A perfume like nothing else.

A woman’s perfume with the scent of a woman” Whilst the work Chanel did in the world of fashion was hugely positive, the same cannot perhaps be said for the rumours about her personal and political life.

According to US journalist Hal Vaughn, Chanel was a Nazi spy who was “Fiercely anti-Semitic long before it became a question of pleasing the Germans”. Vaughn claims that she was recruited into the Abwher (German military intelligence) in 1940 and had an Abwher lover – Hans Gunther Von Dinklage – who was honoured by both Hitler and Goebbels during the war. She was listed in Abwher records as Agent F-7124 and was codenamed ‘Westminster’ after her ex-lover the allegedly antiSemitic Duke of Westminster. However, after the war, it seems that her connections and influential friendships may have saved her from the consequences of any collaboration. In September 1944, she was called in to be interrogated by the Free French Purge Committee, however, the committee had no documented evidence of any collaboration. She was later quoted as saying “Churchill freed me”. The extend of Winston Churchill’s involvement is unknown, but it is possible that he intervened to prevent her being prosecuted because her evidence could have caused considerable embarrassment to top level Britons, including officials, aristocrats and even royalty.

There are many contradictory stories about Coco Chanel’s life (several of which came from Chanel herself) but what cannot be disputed is the style legacy that she left behind. This legacy is such that it’s quite possible that the statement made by Harper’s Bizarre’s in 1915: “The woman who hasn’t at least one Chanel is hopelessly out of fashion” could have made in their most recent edition. Chanel once said: “fashion fades, only style remains the same.” However, it seems her style will never go out of fashion.

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Pool Parade Make a splash this summer with colourful jewels and statement swimwear from

DOLCE & GABBANA PHOTOGRAPHY Eva Haftmann

FASHION EDITOR Natalie Read

CASTADIVA RESORT & SPA, LAKE COMO

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All Ready to wear and jewellery by Dolce & Gabbana price upon request.

Stockist enquiries: Dolce & Gabbana 6-8 Old Bond Street, London W1S 4PH Tel: +44 207 6599000 www.dolcegabbana.it Make-up: Rebecca Rojas, using Dolce & Gabbana make-up Hair: Alex Price at Frank Agency Fashion assistants: Carmen Fuentes Lozano and Hannah Boon Model: Claudia Dumitru at Woman Management Milano With special thanks to CastaDiva Resort and Spa www.mandarinoriental.com/lake-como

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IL PALATO ITALIANO Florence 2018

AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB

Il Palato Italiano The Il Palato Italiano project is an exciting venture undertaken by the Bertani Family. It is committed to the promotion of traditional Italian cuisine and to the discovery and selection of top-notch and niche agri-food products. It provides a powerful way to deeply understand the natural wealth of authentic Italian flavours.

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his dedication to authenticity means that some products may not be available all year round. Nadia makes clear that, whilst at the heart of everything is fresh seasonal produce, this means that some delicacies days are naturally numbered, saying “how can we satisfy the demand? You want it but it’s out of season? We will book it for next year! The modern world has given us the unacceptable view that everything is at our disposal at any time but the truth is that food is a matter of important variables that should be respected; time, nature, heritage and love.”

Launched in 2013, Il Palato Italiano is an exclusive club for food lovers and is the ideal food and beverage partner for any kind of event or experience based on Italian top quality products. The Company has been built to be flexible and has more than 20 business lines which can be used to create a tailor-made product for the client. It also has a fully controlled import chain that ensures everything is 100% Italian before it is sold in Europe and in the US (Miami is the location of their first American warehouse). The strict portfolio of Il Palato Italiano’s board of food scouters include exclusive businesses such as bespoke ham producers along with first class wineries. It’s an Italian company with a global perspective as Luciano explains: “Travelling around the world made us understand the urgent need of people to professionally use the products we were selecting, and that’s the reason why we set up a company, based in Italy, that can literally fly everywhere to bring Italy to your doorstep.”

Il Palato Italiano’s headquarters in Bolzano (state capital of the green Region of Trentino – Alto Adige in Italy) offers tasting sessions, tele-cooking lessons for pro and hobby chefs (a new way to shorten distances between countries and easily teach with the help technology) and private F&B auction sales. The company also travels the world,

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offering planned menus for events and large parties on request, providing what Federica Bertani, Marketing Manager, describes as one of their most requested services: “we not only select the menus and all the small details of the mise-en-place but we also dedicate attention to every personal detail.” She shares Nadia and Luciano’s passion for the company’s mission: “You have to breathe Italy, taste it and feel it; our goal is not just serving good food, it is to make you experience Italy for one evening.

In 2017 we travelled all around the States providing celebrities with fine dining in New York and Los Angeles by participating at the Emmy’s and Oscar’s Gift Lounges” Congratulations at being at “Celebrity Fight Night”; how does it make you feel to be part of such a prestigious evening?

It’s a big honour to be part of this important week. The Bocelli Family is fighting for a good cause and we want to help them entertain their charity with a prestigious dinner in one of the world’s most historical venues.

What are the plans for the business?

Our goal is to become a recognised Italian food & beverage scouter and the finest service provider that can reach any part of the globe and offer a little bit of Italy to the most exclusive palates. We want to be a well-known brand which is synonymous with quality and excellence and a customized partner along with being a seller of both time and emotion because food, especially Italian food, is a matter of emotions.

In 2018 we will also be launching our new project SCRINIUM – which will house 16,000 traditional Italian recipes on a database. www.Ilpalatoitaliano.it

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Filippo Sinisgalli

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Executive Chef of Il Palato Italiano

xecutive Chef Filippo Sinisgalli is the pillar of the Il Palato Italiano project.

His passion for cooking began with the discipline of the Italian Navy, which was then enriched by an articulated and comprehensive training at Gualtiero Marchesi’s school.

When and what inspired you to become a chef?

Like my sister Tiziana, my inspiration comes from my childhood. My grandfather was “il cuoco degli sposalizi (a wedding caterer) like Monsieur François Vatel the famous French Maitre d’hotel. The big difference was that my grandfather’s clients were local villages and neighbours instead of the nobility of Versailles.

What they had in common was the ability to create an occasion that could last days, not just hours, that were attended and enjoyed by a huge number of people. I was fascinated by this which ignited a passion for food.

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What key things have you learnt over the years that you use daily? And when training new staff, what are your methods as a mentor?

My 12 years of military experience tattooed the words “rigour” and “precision” on both sides of my heart. I was a petty officer in the Italian Navy and this taught me that there is always a single person in charge at the top of the pyramid. Cooking is exactly the same; you can share the vision, the strategies, and the goals, but you have to remember that there is just one person who has the last word.

Don’t get me wrong; if you forget your team, you are a lonely man, but as the sole decision maker you also accept the risk and responsibilities linked to your choices. In my everyday life at Il Palato Italiano I want my colleagues to feel part of it – I don’t choose my staff solely on the basis of their technical skills, I want to see a sparkle in their eyes, the sign we share the

same needs; it has to eat properly and grow flavours and aromas that can last decades.

Making bread is an emotional ritual at Il Palato Italiano because you need time (at least 24 hours) patience (feed it every two days) and love (because it prefers a gentle touch while you cover it with a non-whitened soft wheat Italian flour). My pastry chefs and I have baptised my child’s heirs as Attila and Carletto, they are still very young but full of potential.

If you could cook a dish for a historic figure who would it be?

Oriana Fallaci! She’s one of my favourite writers and her last novel “Un cappello pieno di ciliegie” (A Hat Full of Cherries) posthumously published in 2008, was rich in food details. I once dreamed we were in a garden together and close to my arm there was a big nest with just one egg inside. I would start from there and let her choose the rest of the ingredients.

How do you relax after a service?

No doubts on that; the last briefing with my crew with a good cup of coffee (no sugar and a shot of water, of course).

Who cooks at home?

My daughters Angelica (8) and Greta (5). They are my virgin palates, their taste is still pure and they are good judges when I want honest feedback.

same values and the same joy in what we are going to cook together. My team comprises mostly people under 35 because whilst their palate has still room to be educated, their thirst for new things is incomparable.

Il Palato Italiano is a forward-thinking business, cooking inspiring dishes for the most glamourous individuals, how do you plan your menus and maintain fresh concepts?

You are one of the board members on the Euro-Toques Italia board, tell us how this came about?

Yes, I’m proud to be part of this international organisation and to have the chance to elaborate more about it on my travels. At every single event that we do as Il Palato Italiano, we underline that we are part of this big family whose goal is to create a team of professional and chefs and protect the European food and wine culture.

An important part of our work at Il Palato Italiano is to understand our client’s requests. People’s desires, memories, past or future experiences, tales, and emotions are the true building blocks of my menus.

My job is not just to be an inventor, it is to be a good listener. Client interviews are the real tool that allow my creativity to run free – because they provide me with most important touch points of the journey of flavors that I have to arrange.

The other essential thing to do is to carefully learn about the original products we are going to use. I sometimes think that “Designing a new recipe” can be too technical. A great Chef must know when to bow to Mother Nature and, for me, finding transcendent raw material ‘heroes’, is at the heart of what I create.

Do you have any memorable food experiences that impacted on you as a child or as a young chef?

One of the most special moments in my life as a Chef was fifteen years ago, when a Neapolitan Chef gave me his personal yeast base – in English you basically know it as a starter but in Italian it has a fantastic wording which is “lievito madre”. The base is like a child, with the

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IL PALATO ITALIANO Florence 2018

Tiziana Sinisgalli Sommelier at Il Palato Italiano What inspired you to become a sommelier?

The roots of my choice go back to when I was 10 years old and I first tasted the nectar that, in Italy, we call “mosto d’uva” (pure concentrated grape juice). My brother Filippo, and I were living in Missanello, a small village in Basilicata known in the area for the traditional “peperone crusco” – a red pepper braid dried out in the sun and hung on every family balcony. The pyramid shapes used to shimmer in the red and gold shades of sunset above our heads.

The grape harvest in mid-September/early October was a big joy for me, I must have driven both my grandmothers, Filomena and Rosa crazy because

stealing the most important tool for the grape farmers was the top challenge of my day after school. They took it in their stride which now I remember with such fond memories. I was afraid of the big bees that would buzz around the juicy fruit, but nothing could stop me from running through the vineyard with my grandfather’s shining silver scissors, it was magic and I felt like the fairy of the harvest empowered to thank nature for the blossom of the grapevine. Of course, the idea of becoming a Sommelier came later when I was older and an insatiable curiosity aroused my thirst of knowledge, but it was during those grape harvests that I began to appreciate the flavours of my land.

HQ Il Palato Italiano

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Tiziana Sinisgalli

Can you give us an example of an excellent wine and dish combination?

How do you choose your wines for Il Palato Italiano?

How many wines do you taste per day?

In my humble opinion some of my colleagues tend to forget the real meaning of “matching” and the wine should not be considered the only king of the table. We have a great power and responsibility as the choice of wine can enhance or completely destroy the flavours of a meal. For me, serving the best wine means a Sommelier must understand and respect the food created by the Chef and use this knowledge to create a perfect dining situation. Personally, I have a passion for Barolo and when I am at home I usually pair it with a good 30 month aged Parmigiano Reggiano Vacche Rosse. Sheer heaven!

I don’t think that you need to taste an astronomical number of wines to be a good Sommelier.

Of course knowing the product’s technical details is essential, but for me there is a lot more to it than just becoming the most sophisticated analyst. I believe an important part of my job is to learn from our producers which selections are a kind of ‘bill of trust’ between their craftsmanship and Il Palato Italiano’s mission. Quality for me is assured by the essential bond created by family values and this tight connection is the last line of defence between top-notch wine and mass produced wine.

Is there a person you especially admire within the wine industry?

Yes! Without any doubt, it’s the Piedmont enologist Giacomo Tachis. He was a master in the field, who unfortunately died last year in February at the age of 82. He was known as the prince of the wine experts and he brought Italian wine to the world. He was also celebrated as the creator of the Sassicaia labelling. A genius!

If you could enjoy a bottle of wine with a famous person who would you choose?

The last book I read from a musician friend’s library, was “La Cuisine de Monsieur Momo” by Henry de Toulouse-Lautrec, so, rather than choosing a contemporary expert, I would opt for some big names of the past who are also known for their pleasure in eating. For example, if Mozart and Rossini weren’t remembered for their oeuvres they would be known for their passion for gastronomy.

www.ilpalatoitaliano.it

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FINE DINING

Caviar is King

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urrounded by the stunning landscape of the Engadin mountains, embedded in the mystic village of St Moritz sits Glattfelder; a family run business in the strictest sense of the word. three generations and still going strong.

Established in 1931 by James Glattfelder, the business opened as a delicatessen and colonial goods store supplying individual clients as well as local hotels and restaurants in the area. Quickly the business became an essential fixture within the glamorous world of the Engadin, a shopping experience that combined the best and most exclusive gourmet products with a social setting.

An environment that can be considered at the origin of the phrase ‘places to be seen’. And most definitely a place of welcoming warmth on cold winter days.

Glattfelder, the hidden gem of St Moritz gained in reputation in the 1960’s when the resort transformed itself into the playground of the rich and famous.

Celebrities, writers, artists and wealthy individuals frequented the streets during the seasonal summer and winter months. The word ‘excess’ became a monumental part of daily holiday life in this little village. Champagne and Caviar flowed freely. ‘Let the good times roll’ was a motto that people lived by.

By then Glattfelder was in the firm hands of the second generation, Tazi, son of James saw an opportunity and changed the little delicatessen store into what we can today consider to be a ‘caviar hub’.

The little ‘caviar stübli’ within the confines of the original store came to life allowing guests to taste the many different varieties on offer. With great respect to the business origins and his father, Tazi however also continued to maintain the sales of the most exclusive teas and coffees and to this day, these and caviar define the core of the Glattfelder business.

Tazi, a shrewd business man to say the least, seized the opportunity he saw. Combined with his exuberant personality he managed to catapult the business to new heights. A caviar business to be reckoned with on an international scale.

And here, it still stands today.

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20 years ago, the third generation came into play.

Nina, Tazi’s daughter was delighted to take over the business she had grown up with. Spoon fed on caviar by her two-meter-tall father from an early age, Nina took on a difficult role as it was the time that wild caviar from the Caspian Sea was becoming scarce. Nina, like her father and grandfather before her persevered.

Today, she has turned around and found a caviar in China that more than compensates for its lack of origin.

“Initially I was very skeptical about the concept of caviar from China” Nina admits, “however, after visiting the facilities in Hangzhou and the Lake of a Thousand Islands where the sturgeon is kept for the first couple of years, I was speechless. I had never expected such purity of water, such state-of-the-art professionalism and a scientific understanding of the process to produce perfect caviar. I will never forget entering the production facilities and seeing three Iranian caviar masters, men who knew my father from his visits to the Caspian Sea. Men who had learned the art of caviar making from their fathers. True artists!”

Speaking to Nina during the incredibly busy holiday period of the 2017/2018 season, she remarked that all she did was ‘shovel’ caviar. This thought can make one’s imagination run wild; Nina, dressed in wellington boots, knee deep in the caviar barrels. Her hands clad in rubber gloves shoveling the caviar into large metal tins… And thus, if there is anything that can convince

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you that Nina is the right person to see the business to the next level, then this is it. With her heart and soul Nina is Glattfelder.

Glattfelder, a world apart from every other caviar business today. There are no shortcuts, there is only pride. Pride in a family business that was started nearly a century ago by Nina’s grandfather. Pride in one of the few business’s that still exist today where one can state with certainty that their emphasis is on quality.

There is definitely and absolutely no negotiation with regard to this.

It may not be known on a global scale. It may not sell at airport duty free stores or feature in the sale racks of large department stores. It may not come as a package deal with a bottle of Russian vodka. But to the connoisseurs of caviar one thing is certain; at Glattfelder they will receive the best of the best of what was once described as Iranian gold.

By Iwana Krause www.glattfelder.ch

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Champagne &Wine Bars

© Eric Laignel – Plaza Athenee

Here are our top 8 choices from around the world.

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Champagne & Oyster Bar – London

Dom Pérignon Bar, Montreal

Located in the Foodhall on G, Champagne & Oyster Bar by Caviar House & Prunier offers all of your seafood favourites, served with a connoisseur’s selection of wines and champagnes.

A sexy bar for sexy people. Located in Four-Star The Ritz-Carlton Montreal’s glamorous Palm Court, this simple, slick black bar serves all things Dom. Order the rosé or brut Dom Pérignon by the glass or by the bottle, they also have a great cocktail list.

www.selfridges.com

www.ritzcarlton.com

Le Bar du Plaza Athénée – Paris

Paris’s first bar to serve Champagne only (with over 200 varieties on offer) The sommeliers regularly visit the Champagne region to discover new and rare vintages an intimate and romantic with a fireplace to set off the atmosphere.

www.dorchestercollection.com

© Niall Clutton – Plaza Athene

Bar le Dokhans – Paris

Part of the glamorous Dorchester Collection visitors can enjoy a classic glass of Champagne from its long list of offerings or flirt with the bars imaginative cocktails whilst listening to the sounds of a live DJ five nights a week.

The Liberate – Berlin Mint Gun Club, London With its sophisticated interiors and photogenic decor, this spot is sure to provide you with numerous Instagramworthy photo opportunities. Situated in trendy Stoke Newington, this local tea room, delicatessen and aperitivo bar not only offers a range of premium alcoholic beverages but also serves delicious club sodas, smoothies and an eclectic range of rare blended teas from all over the world.

At Berlin’s The Liberate bar, bargoers lounge on plush sofas amid opulent gold decor. www.theliberate.com

New York Bar – Tokyo You may recognise it as the bar where Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson has drinks in “Lost in Translation,” the New York-themed bar sits on the 52nd floor of the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo and has stunning views of the Shinkuku district.

www.onesour.com

www.tokyo.park.hyatt.com

Nimb B – Copenhagen Located across from Copenhagen’s central station, this gorgeous building offers a true 1920s-style luxury within the city, you can gaze at the glistening crystal chandeliers and a six-foot fireplace whilst sipping your bubbles. www.nimb.dk 105

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Castadiva Resort & Spa Lake Como – the place of romance and dreams

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s all great romantic novels go, life revolves around a magnificent love story flourishing with an optimistic ending. Throw in a few twists and turns, scenery to die for along the way and you will be getting close to picturing how it feels to arrive at the Castadiva hotel. A story book journey of pure romance, set in a very special place.

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Set in a sought-after position in Northern Italy’s Lombardy region, a picturesque winding road descends down to this six-acre luxury 5-star resort on the eastern shores of Lake Como. Rolling lush green hills surround Italy’s third largest lake and at the foot of the alps, impressive Neoclassical villas line the waters edge.

With a rich history, the Castadiva is one of the most spectacular in architecture and character. The hotel’s main Villa Roccabruna was once home to Italy’s most famous nineteenth century opera singer, Giuditta Pasta, who inspired Bellini to compose his opera Norma whilst he was a guest at the villa. Fast forward to the present day and its easy to see how a setting so beautiful could provide such inspiration.

Now with 73 individually-designed suites and rooms, as well as two private villas, aptly named with a nod towards the operatic heritage it is no wonder that the hotel has played host to a number of distinguished celebrity and royal guests and is a prestigious member of the small luxury hotels of the world and recent winner of most romantic retreat award.

Although steeped in history and operatic elegance, somehow the seamless marriage between old and new modern day luxury works in perfect harmony.

Contemporary features include the largest spa on Lake Como where guests can choose from an array of indulgent treatments and feel at one with nature in the floating swimming pool perfectly positioned on the lake affording an undisturbed view of the beautiful Italian countryside.

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Rooms are extremely modern and luxurious with space and artistic design, plush interiors throughout and floor to ceiling French doors which open to a majestic opulent balcony perfect for taking in the spectacular views.

When the sun sets the lake glistens from the moonlight and this magical moment in itself is enhanced further with a sumptuous dinner in the L’Orangerie restaurant. A magnificent gastronomic experience is headed up by Michelin star chef Massimiliano Mandozzi. Dine on the terrace overlooking the lake or take an equally charming spot inside to enjoy the culinary delights of traditional Italian favourites with contemporary twists and global influences. Each course is gourmet dining at its finest with tantalising tastes and creative presentation to match. Sommelier-selected wine pairings complete a truly unforgettable evening.

By day there are plenty of relaxing spots to hide away from the world and admire the surroundings.

A stroll through the beautiful botanical gardens is a must, the view from the top is awe inspiring. Life at the resort is high end luxury without pretention, charming and sophisticated, dreamy and spectacular, the perfect romance.

Explore: The charming local towns Cernobbio, Moltrasio, Tremezzo and Bellagio are all a short ride away.

Getting there: British Airways fly London – Milan Malpensa £180 approx.

Unique features: For those planning on tying the knot, Castadiva is the perfect choice wedding venue. The first and only hotel in the region offering exclusive civil ceremonies with legal value. Newlywed’s can continue the celebrations with a resort and spa honeymoon package. For all booking enquiries visit www.mandarinoriental.com/lake-como

By Natalie Read (Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is now managing CastaDiva Resort & Spa)

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LUXURY

Up Above The Rest Rohit Jaggi reports on his experience flying the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet. What makes this aircraft so popular among Business Aviation’s owner-operator contingent? Find out here…

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trapping myself into the left-hand seat of the Cirrus SF50, much of the cockpit looks and feels familiar. There are two big display screens that are the windows into the avionics system (like in the SR piston-engine airplanes in the Cirrus Aircraft line-up).

There is the side stick at my left hand (also familiar from the SF50’s SR siblings). What is far less usual is all the space and light around me. It’s a pressurised aircraft but the windows are unusually large. And the cabin itself is remarkably roomy.

This is the Vision Jet, which sits in a class of its own – a single-engine personal jet aimed squarely at ownerpilots, though it also has the potential to shake up the lower-end of the private jet sector.

Familiarity was one prime objective when Minnesotabased Cirrus sketched out plans more than a decade ago for a small jet powered by a single turbofan.

The SF50 was part of a tide of optimism about an ever-growing market for jets, in the heady days before the global economic crash, that also gave birth to the Eclipse very light twin-jet and the Diamond and Piper single-engine jets.

Cirrus had made its name with the SR20 and SR22 single-engine piston aircraft, so a single-engine turbofan was an easy choice. The OEM had also pioneered a whole airframe parachute, for use in dire emergency.

So that, too, was also a no-brainer.

“With the SR we started selling a plane,” Matt Bergwall, director of the Vision Jet product line explains, “but we got people into aviation. People understood the utility of aviation. The Vision Jet was made to be the next step up.”

Space was another prime objective. Using composites for the airframe freed Cirrus from the tyranny of the tube-shaped fuselages resulting from using aluminium alloy. The ensuing broad, tadpole-like shape, with space

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for up to five adults and two children in three rows, could also do away with the divide between cockpit and cabin common in most jets.

This means that if it’s a family travelling together, they are all in the same space, rather than the pilot/ parent being isolated at the front. “It’s more like a station wagon than a limousine,” adds Bergwall.

Starting up the turbofan is no more complicated than starting a family automobile’s engine, either.

The turn of a switch, the push of a button, and the automated systems make sure nothing goes wrong.

That’s an example of the over-arching design philosophy – take all the functions that are routine or capable of automation and offer at least the option of having the aircraft do them by itself. As an example, once a destination is fed into Cirrus’ Perspective Touch avionics (customized from Garmin’s G3000 system), the schedule of cabin pressure changes is handled automatically.

Feeding in power is also simplicity itself – lined up on the runway I push the single power lever through the maximum continuous power détente and unleash the Williams FJ33-5A engine’s 1,836lbst.

At the aircraft’s maximum take-off weight of 6,000lbs, I don’t expect acceleration to be earth-

shattering, but with only two of us on board it is sprightly enough. (Even at maximum weight, take-off distance to clear 50ft is 3,192ft, and climb rate is up to 2,500ft per minute.)

The SF50’s V-tail keeps the empennage out of the way of the engine, mounted on top of the rear fuselage. But an extra benefit is two matching fins below the tail, which comprise a stability augmentation system that comes on once we leave the ground. They also counteract yaw, which means there is no need for a yaw damper.

The result is an aircraft that is stable and predictable in its handling – which is perfect for an aircraft that is likely to be flown under Instrument Flight Rules for much of its time in the air, even if not actually in the clouds.

The hugely sophisticated autopilot helps here – an easy interface is just ahead of my right hand where it rests on the power lever.

While there is no auto throttle, an on-by-default envelope protection system is built into the electronics.

If I try to turn too steeply for the airspeed, for example, and ignore the verbal warnings, the system nudges the stick back towards safety. And for protection against stalling there is both a stick shaker and, as a next step, a stick pusher.

In addition, if I were to become disorientated while hand-flying (for example in cloud or on a moonless night), there is the ‘magic blue button’. Pushing it returns the aircraft to straight and level flight. It’s quite hard to imagine needing it, though.

Most flying is done through the autopilot, and the Vision Jet’s display screens are not only big but also customizable. So almost any combination of maps, systems data and weather can be displayed at the same time.

Below the screens are three large touchscreen controllers, one of which can act as a standby primary flight display. The touchscreens can also be set up to individual preferences – for example, on my flights I kept one for quick and easy entry of radio frequencies.

This is a seriously capable going-places machine – a range of up to 1,200nm, or 1,000 at high-speed cruise, means that from the Knoxville, Tennessee Vision Jet delivery center we could fly to almost anywhere on the US east coast without stopping for fuel. To the west, Amarillo would be within range.

Fuel burn is startling to anyone coming from piston planes – the first hour of a trip uses 80-85 US gallons, but at cruise the jet uses only about 70 gallons an hour.

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Overall, that’s roughly $300 per hour). You can cover a lot of ground in each hour – high-speed cruise is 300kts.

Landing speeds are low for a jet – stall speed is just 67kts (against 60kts for the SR22) and I found that the aircraft was easy to settle into a stable descent, at the bottom of which the trailing-link landing gear makes every landing look good.

Pilots will need a specific type rating, and training for one pilot is included in the airplane’s price. An instrument rating, allowing the pilot to fly in cloud, is required but that can be added into the training syllabus. You need it to fly at the altitudes where the SF50 is most efficient –at, or near 28,000ft.

There will also be two Vision Jet full-motion Level D simulators from July, when the one at Knoxville becomes operational. The other is in Poznan, Poland.

Cirrus stuck with its SF50 while planned rivals such as the Diamond D-Jet and the PiperJet were shelved.

And it looks like the Minnesota company’s faith in the concept was justified. Since FAA certification at the end of 2016 Cirrus has delivered 45 jets and has orders for more than 600 in hand.

At a current production rate of just over one per week, this year it will deliver 60 – that’s a healthy backlog, when output is ramped up to 125 annually.

However, Bergwall says opportunities for earlier positions do come up from time to time.

Given the pricing ($1.96m base price, and $2.4m typically equipped) demand is likely to remain strong from Cirrus piston plane owners seeking to trade up, and those turned-off by the high price of more conventional Light jets.

There are also fleet operators for whom the economics of the aircraft make sense.

While aviation’s history is littered with the bleached bones of aircraft that were going to change the way we fly, the Vision Jet might be the aircraft that extends the benefits of jet ownership to many more pilots. Full marks to Cirrus for keeping the faith.

More information from www.cirrusaircraft.com Find Jets for Sale at www.avbuyer.com Rohit Jaggi holds airplane and helicopter licenses and frequently conducts flight tests of airplanes and helicopters for print and video. He held a number of news editing and reporting posts with the Financial Times before becoming a freelance writer.

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Agnelli’s ‘la dolce vita’ Ferrari

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The inside story of FIAT patriarch Gianni Agnelli and his secret Ferrari...

hen Enzo Ferrari launched his first car in 1947, little did he know that 70 years on his company would become a multibillion dollar luxury brand.

Many of his early creations are now priceless automotive icons. Close to the top of the list is the Ferrari 166 MM – the car that put the Maranellobased marque on the map.

With stunning bodywork crafted by coachbuilder Carrozzeria Touring of Milan, it was presented at the 1948 Turin Motor Show. Sporting an open style that came to be known as the barchetta (Italian for “little boat”) the two-seater was an instant success, representing a purity of design rarely equalled since.

The ‘MM’ in the 166’s title was a tribute to Ferrari’s victory in the legendary Mille Miglia road race the year before. In fact, two of the early 166M MM Barchettas

were entered by Ferrari at the 1949 Mille Miglia, finishing a commanding 1-2. The 166 MM went on to rack up multiple wins during the same season, including Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Spa. In 1949, the customer for the 24th Touring Barchetta (chassis No 0064M) was none other than Giovanni “Gianni” Agnelli, grandson of Giovanni Agnelli (1866-1945), who founded Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino (FIAT) in 1899.

Already a fashion icon, Gianni was 28 at the time and heir apparent. Forbidden from being seen behind the wheel of any car but a FIAT by then company boss Vittorio Valletta, Gianni ordered his Ferrari in complete secrecy.

On August 8th, 1950, he took delivery of his sports car. Gianni and his Prancing Horse – the epitome of la dolce vita.

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His 166 MM was notable for its ‘teardrop’ rear lights, striking blue/green two-tone paintwork and leather belt embracing the bonnet. “I shall always remember my first Ferrari,” he later recalled.

He didn’t keep the 166 MM for long, selling it to Belgian Viscount Gery d’Hendecourt in 1952. In 1957, it changed hands again, this time going to Armand and Jean Blaton. It was then sold to former Belgian racing driver Jacques Swaters before being bought by current owner, Englishman Clive Beecham, in 2012.

With bodywork returned to its original condition, Gianni Agnelli’s old Ferrari found itself the star of the show at the 2015 Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance, winning the prestigious ‘Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este’ prize.

Considered to be one of the greatest and most iconic Ferraris of all time, the 166 MM Barchetta chassis 0064M has been showcased at the New York Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery in Berlin and the Design Museum in London at a special Ferrari 70th anniversary exhibition.

Gianni Agnelli died aged 81 in 2003. One of the 20th century’s greatest playboys, he became Italy’s most influential businessman, turning FIAT into a worldwide conglomerate.

The great irony is that FIAT, under Gianni’s stewardship, eventually took control of Ferrari. The luxury car maker was floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015, but the Agnelli and Ferrari families keep a firm grip in the boardroom.

Words by Gareth Herincx Images © By Red Focus / A.Ceccarelli – A. Bianchetti

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Ferrari 857S

THE ULTIMATE DREAM CAR “In good Ferrari tradition, the new four-cylinder racer was named after its unitary displacement, so the car was known as the 857 S or Sport”

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riginally developed for the all-conquering Ferrari 500 F2 single seater, the Aurelio Lampredi designed straight four was briefly among Ferrari’s most widely used sports car engines during the early 1950s.

Following several prototypes raced by the works team in 1953, two production racers were launched in 1954; the 500 Mondial and the 750 Monza, equipped with respectively a two and a three-litre version of the ‘four’.

In a quest for even more power and torque, Ferrari’s engineers continued the development of the fourcylinder engine. By 1955 its maximum displacement of just over 3.4 litre was achieved by boring and stroking the light alloy block to 102 mm and 105 mm respectively. That was almost twice the size of the twolitre original, which featured a more modest bore and stroke of 90 mm and 78 mm. The big ‘four’ a unitary displacement of 857.98 cc.

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Known as the ‘Tipo 129’, the 1955 specification engine did follow the design of Lampredi’s original, first raced back in 1952. Both the block and head were constructed from light alloy. The beautifully sculpted head featured twin overhead camshafts and could accommodate for two plugs per cylinder. The engine was fed by two massive twin-choke Weber carburetors.

All this helped the Tipo 129 produce around 280 bhp and close to 400 Nm of torque.

Mated to a five-speed gearbox, the very tall engine was bolted in the Tipo 510 chassis that was virtually identical to the one used for the 750 Monza production cars. The frame was constructed from elliptical tubes and suspension was by double wishbones and coil springs at the front, while the rear used a De Dion axle with a transverse leaf spring. Unlike the British rivals, the Italian manufacturer opted to retain the tried and test hydraulic drums over the disc brakes pioneered by Jaguar.

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In good Ferrari tradition, the new four-cylinder racer was named after its unitary displacement, so the car was known as the 857 S or Sport. From the Ferrari factory, the rolling chassis were shipped to Sergio Scaglietti in Modena, who by then was responsible for clothing almost all of Ferrari’s sports racers. The aluminum skin crafted by Scaglietti’s skilled workers was similar to that of the rest of the range with the exception of two ‘blisters’ on the engine cover, needed to clear the tall engine’s cam covers.

Especially for the Scuderia Ferrari works team, three examples were produced late in 1955, while a fourth 857 Sport was sold directly to the United States. The

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three works cars were raced only briefly by the factory with a victory in the Giro di Sicilia in 1956 as the best result. In private hands the four machines were campaigned for a lot longer and with considerable success, especially in the United States. Among the 857 Sport’s noteworthy drivers were the likes of Phil Hill and Carroll Shelby.

One of the main reasons the 857 Sport was only briefly used by the Scuderia was that it was quickly followed by the 860 Monza. This used the same Tipo 129 engine but now in combination with the Tipo 520 chassis also used by the V12-engined 290 MM. Compared to the earlier design, the new chassis

featured tubular reinforcements bringing it closer to a ‘spaceframe’ design. Another change was the adoption of a sturdier four-speed gearbox. Only three 860 Monza’s were built, one of which was later converted to 290 MM specification.

Ready in time for the season opening Sebring 12 Hours, the new 860 Monza had a dream debut. Two cars were entered and Fangio and Castellotti led Musso and Schell home to score a one-two win. The winning car was sold but the other was campaigned alongside the 290 MMs for the rest of the year. Schell added another victory to the 860 Monza’s tally by winning the GP de Rouen. The 1956 season would be the swansong

for the works four cylinders but the engine would live on for another year in the customer 500 TR(C).

Used with great effect in period, the four-cylinder engines form but a side-note in the history of Ferrari where the V12 engine reigns supreme. When driven well, and most importantly carefully, the four-cylinder Ferraris were more than a match for most rivals.

However, missing a gear and over-revving could have catastrophic results. It is perhaps not a coincidence then that the type’s biggest win was scored by the ever delicate Juan Manuel Fangio. © Red Focus / A.Ceccarelli – A. Bianchetti

By Massimo Basile

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Lamborghini Urus THE SUPERCAR OF SUVs

Expectations are high for the all-new Lamborghini Urus – a stunning, sumptuous SUV from the legendary Italian car company.

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s you’d expect from the maker of thoroughbred supercars including the Huracán and Aventador, the Urus is no ordinary 4x4. Dubbed the first SSUV (Super Sports Utility Vehicle) it is likely to become the best-selling car in Lamborghini’s 55-year history.

The historic factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese has doubled in size from 80,000 to 160,000 square metres in order to accommodate the Urus production line and if all goes well, Lamborghini will double its annual output to close on 8,000 cars within two years.

The Urus is the most practical Lamborghini ever (we’ll overlook the limited-edition LM002 “Rambo Lambo” of 1986). For the first time ever, a family can head off on a road trip in a car wearing the raging bull badge – there’s even room for the luggage (616 litres, or 1,596 litres with the rear seats folded down).

Fans will be pleased to know that all this luxury and practicality is not at the expense of performance.

Its twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 produces 641bhp with 850Nm of torque, allowing it sprint to 62mph (100kph) in just 3.6 seconds – and it keeps on accelerating until it reaches 189mph (305kph) – making it the fastest SUV on the market.

All this power is matched by a sweet-shifting eightspeed automatic gearbox, which can of course be overridden using the large paddles behind the steering wheel.

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The Urus oozes kerb appeal, attracting plenty of admiring waves and nods. Sleeker and more sporty than its rivals, it’s also unmistakeably a Lamborghini, taking styling cues from its supercar siblings.

“As you’d expect from a car priced from £165,000 (171,429 euros or 217,200 Swiss francs), it’s definitely at the luxury end of the market – and it shows” However, there’s no getting away from the fact that it is a big car. At 5112mm long and 2016mm wide, it’s slightly wider and only a touch shorter than a Bentley Bentayga, for instance.

The good news is that it hides its size and 2.2-tonne weight well. Admittedly, driving it in Rome during the launch event was a challenge, but then you could say that about any car.

But out on the open road it will cruise happily, or aggressively lapping up the miles at speed, depending on your mood.

There are three road driving modes – Strada

LUXURY CARS

(comfort), Sport (agility) and Corsa (precision and maximum performance) and three off-road settings – Neve (snow), Sabbia (sand) and Terra (general off-road).

Strada is just fine most of the time, but it’s hard to resist switching it to Sport or Corsa, especially when approaching tunnels. Then it’s just a case of winding down the windows to revel in the Lamborghini’s awesome V8 soundtrack punctuated by pops and crackles on the overrun.

Once out of Rome our destination was the impressive Autodromo Vallelunga – a tight, technical circuit, ideal for testing the limits of the Urus.

Despite its size, the Urus is a forgiving car on track.

In fact, it’s unbelievably agile, almost defying physics.

Thanks to four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, active rear torque vectoring, adaptive air suspension with active dampers, a roll stabilisation system and huge 440mm front carbon ceramic brakes (the largest on any production car) it feels totally planted with well controlled body roll in corners, superb acceleration and serious traction. And if it sounded amazing on the road, the engine roar on track is something else.

Such is Lamborghini’s confidence in the car, our next stop was a specially-prepared off-road circuit just beside the autodromo.

Testing cars on rougher terrain usually means lots of challenging low-speed climbs and descents, plus mud and water challenges.

Off-roading Lamborghini-style took us out on a sweeping gravel and sand circuit. More rallycross than anything, it was all about speed. It coped remarkably well, but I don’t think I’d put my Urus through that kind of punishment.

As you’d expect from a car priced from £165,000 (171,429 euros or 217,200 Swiss francs), it’s definitely at the luxury end of the market – and it shows.

Beautifully built, it’s particularly sumptuous inside, but not necessarily in a traditional sense. The interior can be customised to be more elegant or sporty via a selection of different colours and materials such as leather, Alcantara, wood, aluminium or carbon fibre.

Up front it’s more like a hi-tech cockpit with a commanding view of the road, while the dashboard architecture follows the “Y” theme inspired by iconic Lamborghini models.

There are twin screens in the centre console – one controlling media, navigation, connectivity and car status, the other handling functions such as climate control – plus a digital display ahead of the driver.

The cabin is spacious, up front and in the rear, and despite the sloping coupe-like roofline, there’s plenty of headroom in the back for six-footers.

Verdict: The Lamborghini Urus is a revelation.

Versatile, fun to drive, ridiculously fast, practical and luxurious, it shouldn’t work, but it does, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

125

Filippo Sinisgalli

Executive Chef Il Palato Italiano

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